New Attorney-General Guy Barnett pushes for minimum child sexual abuse jail terms
New Attorney-General Guy Barnett has introduced the government’s fourth attempt at legislation for compulsory jail terms for courts dealing with child sexual abusers. But this time, with a caveat.
Police & Courts
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New Attorney-General Guy Barnett has thrown his weight behind the government’s repeated attempts to introduce mandatory minimum jail sentences for child sexual abusers.
As parliament returned on Tuesday, Mr Barnett introduced the government’s fourth attempt at legislation for compulsory prison time – this time with a caveat to preserve “judicial discretion”.
In this latest attempt, unlike the previous three, the Bill ensures power remains with the courts, with judges able to decide against a mandatory jail term if they believe it to be unjust – provided they give reasons as to why.
The redrafted Bill aims to impose a presumption of jail terms of two, three and four years for a number of serious sexual crimes against children and young people under 18, including rape, persistent sexual abuse, penetrative sexual abuse and sexual abuse by a person in authority.
Mr Barnett said the Liberal Party’s mandatory jail term policy had been taken to three elections, so it had a mandate to deliver on.
“There is a presumption that there will be a minimum mandatory sentence for child sexual offenders or rape of a child under 18 years of age – heinous crimes, horrendous crimes,” he said.
“These people need to be stopped. We need to send a message – this Bill would do exactly that.”
Mr Barnett said the Bill was an example of the government taking action to address child sexual abuse, while also reaffirming its commitment to implementing the commission of inquiry recommendations.
He said he was hopeful the legislation would be passed in parliament on this attempt.
Beyond Abuse CEO Steve Fisher supported the legislation, saying it struck a good balance between appropriate sentencing and the judiciary “keeping their discretion”.
He said victim-survivors had long wanted a reason why their perpetrators had received minimal or no time behind bars.
“It’s absolutely gut-wrenching and soul-destroying when a perpetrator receives what amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist,” Mr Fisher said.
“It further traumatises a person that has gone through hell and then made the decision to come forward.
“This (Bill) is something that will take away that feeling of: ‘why did I even bother to do it?’”
Mr Fisher said in his own experience, his abuser had pleaded guilty and still only received one year behind bars.
“I just could not believe the sentence he got. There was no explanation as to how he got what he got for what he did to me, for three years of molestation.”
This bid replaces former Attorney-General Elise Archer’s most recent attempt made last year, after the previous two attempts were voted down in the Legislative Council in 2020 and 2017.
The Bill’s failure has largely come due to Labor’s policy of not backing mandatory minimum sentencing.
If this attempt passes both houses of parliament, Tasmania will be the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce a mandatory sentencing presumption of this kind.
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