Arsonists face nine years without parole
AS fire burned out of control in Goonoo Forest this week, Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders issued a timely reminder that the standard non-parole period (SNPP) for convicted arsonists is nine years.
“With another hot and dry summer around the corner, it is important there are strong laws in place to protect farmers and communities who are already battling drought,” Mr Saunders said.
“My message to would-be firebugs is to stop and think about the children and families who could be killed or injured and the huge economic and emotional toll of being homeless and having to rebuild homes and farms from scratch.”
The cause of this week’s Goonoo fire had not been confirmed at press time.
Taree Community Health Centre’s Helen Connell agrees offenders should be accountable, but suggests alternate punishments to gaol especially for young offenders.
Her submission to the Sentencing Council SNNP review requested by Attorney General
Mark Speakman in 2018 suggests younger people be made to spend weekends at burn units “to see first-hand the outcome of their criminal act and see what victims endure. This might seem harsh, but arson is such an outrageous crime – in the same category of molestation of any kind,” she said.
Legal Aid NSW also held concerns for young offenders in their submission saying that, as the vast majority of prosecutions for this type of offence are against young men aged 18 to 24 years, “a harsher guidepost in the form of a longer standard non-parole period would be an inappropriate response to this group of offenders, who may be engaging in immature and reckless behaviour, without intent to cause damage or harm”.
A lengthy submission by the Public Defender’s office concluded that an increase in non-parole periods would be ineffective as they would largely “impact the young and first time offender, in circumstances where the current range of sentences being imposed serve as a deterrent to these people, punishing the offender, denouncing the conduct, and deterring others”.
The NSW Rural Fire Service Association president Ken Middleton said his organisation supported an increase to the standard non-parole period for lighting bushfires.
In NSW the maximum penalty under the Crimes Act for bushfire offence is 21 years.
As a result of Sentencing Council SNPP review report, the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 was amended to increase the standard non-parole period for the bushfire offence under section 203E of the Crimes Act 1900.
“The tougher standard non-parole period builds on the Government’s introduction of a tougher penalty for the bushfire offence, which increased the maximum penalty from 14 to 21 years in November last year,” Mr Speakman said.