Building justice system to put victims first
EVERY
Tasmanian deserves to feel safe in their community, and the Hodgman Government makes no apologies for being tough on crime and making sure serious criminals are not roaming the streets.
As the new Justice Minister I am honoured to serve the Tasmanian community and I will work hard every single day to ensure our justice system puts victims first.
We went to the 2014 election with a strong focus on law and order as it was clear to us that Tasmanians had lost faith in our justice system, and the community overwhelmingly voted to endorse our policies which send a stronger deterrent message to criminals.
We have already made great strides in implementing our agenda and making Tasmania a safer place for all, and this work continues with several key pieces of legislation set to be voted on in the Legislative Council before the year’s end.
This includes the next phase in our plan to abolish suspended sentences, which are a soft and ineffective response to serious crimes that are viewed by criminals as effectively no punishment at all.
The second tranche of reforms will mean serious sex offenders, drug traffickers and violent criminals will no longer be eligible for suspended sentences. Home detention orders and community corrections orders will also be introduced as alternative sentencing options, joining the expansion of drug treatment orders to the Supreme Court and deferred sentencing of offenders that took effect earlier this year as replacement sentencing options.
These changes are vitally needed to restore community confidence in Tasmania’s justice system and are recognition of the voice of victims.
We are also moving forward on our commitment to prevent the early release of prisoners under remissions, with a Bill to remove this outdated practice passing the House of Assembly recently.
It has been of significant concern to the Government that remissions allow offenders to be released up to three months before the release date handed down by the court, and Tasmanians would be shocked to learn that one out of every four prisoners is released before their sentence handed down by the court is completed.
If you commit crimes serious enough to be sent to prison, there should be no getout-of-jail free cards, and these changes send the right message to criminals that if you do the crime, you will do the time sentenced, as the community expects.
These changes have several things in common — they will make Tasmania a safer place, they will restore community confidence in our justice system, and they are all opposed by the inexperienced leader of the Labor Party, Rebecca White.
With Labor effectively holding the balance of power in the Legislative Council, they will and should be held accountable for politically motivated decisions they make to block legislation that has strong community support.
Already this year we have seen Rebecca White vote against guaranteed jail time for heinous crimes against children such as rape where the complainant is under 17, and sexual intercourse with a young person where there are aggravating circumstances.
There would be very few Tasmanians who believe these offences do not deserve mandatory jail time, and the Labor Party was rightfully condemned by victims’ groups and the community for their stance. It was telling that Rebecca White went into hiding and refused to face the media for days afterwards, knowing full well there was no reason to block the legislation other than political opposition to the Government’s agenda.
With the legislation to abolish remissions and suspended sentences due before the Legislative Council in the coming weeks, now is the time for Rebecca White to reconsider Labor’s stance and put the victims and community expectations before her own political self-interest. I urge all Upper House members to allow the Government to pass what we were overwhelmingly elected to do.
If Labor again refuses, we will not give up. We will take these strong laws to the people at the next election and, if reelected, we will reintroduce them to the Parliament. Elise Archer is state Justice Minister.