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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-03-20 Daily Xml
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Legislative Changes, Law and Order

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:48): Supplementary: the Attorney mentioned an increase in maximum penalties. Attorney, when did an offender last receive one of the maximum penalties that you outlined?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:48): I thank the honourable member for his question. He has asked a number of questions in a similar vein. Of course, the penalties are what parliament sets down. In the case of these reforms, I am pleased at the multipartisan way that this chamber and the other chamber passed laws to give effect to these reforms.

Of course, where there is a maximum penalty, it is the judiciary—as is the case with an independent judiciary—that decides, within that scale, what penalty to impose. The maximum penalty is generally reserved for the very worst types of offending within that category, but offending will graduate between that. With these laws having only come into operation in recent months, there won't be a huge number of prosecutions that have occurred and I am not sure if one has gone to completion. Over time, it will be that these prosecutions occur and offenders will be given sentences, so it won't be immediate, but over time the range right up to the top end of the spectrum will apply.

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