LAWFUEL – Australia Legal Newswire – Premier Morris Iemma’s proposed new laws for child killers are a “beat up”, the NSW opposition says, the Sydney Morning Herald Reports.
Fairfax newspapers reported the Iemma government would introduce tough new laws setting mandatory minimum sentences for serious criminals in NSW, including at least 25 years for child killers.
Mr Iemma said the new laws, to be introduced into state parliament in a fortnight, would mean NSW had mandatory minimum sentences for 15 categories of crime, up from five.
But opposition attorney-general spokesman Greg Smith has labelled the announcement a beat up, which brings disappointment rather than healing to relatives of deceased victims.
“Most people would think those who monstrously kill children are now certain to be sentenced to a non-parole period of 25 years,” Mr Smith said.
“If they believed this they would be fooled.”
Mr Smith said the Labor government’s proposed new laws for child killers were an overstatement because the proposed laws would not be mandatory.
“Standard non-parole periods don’t apply to the vast majority of criminals who are sentenced after a guilty plea. They only apply to the small proportion of criminals who are convicted after a trial,” Mr Smith said.
“It is not true to describe the allocation of standard non-parole periods to further offences as setting ‘mandatory minimum’ sentencing.”
