Ms MARTIN - 2000-02-22
My senior ministerial adviser lives in Millner. In the last 3 weeks, her car has been broken into 4 times. On each occasion, car windows were smashed, costing hundreds of dollars in repairs. Police have indicated there is no hope of catching the offenders. What has mandatory sentencing done for this victim of crime, and so many other Territorians like her, when your failed regime neither prevents nor reduces crime?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it’s a pretty base question, to talk about some constituent who I don’t know, I don’t know the circumstances of the case, and then to go to a broad generalisation about what it has done to the victim, how mandatory sentencing helps the victims of crime. I can only repeat the answer I gave before. We’re about to have an election, a by-election. There’s a good chance for a referendum on mandatory sentencing, and Territorians can stand up and they can vote and they can decide themselves. They can decide themselves what they think about mandatory sentencing, and whether mandatory sentencing is delivering for them.
But at the very least, Territorians can be comforted by this fact, and that is that this government, when it goes to an election with policies, actually does it.
So many governments don’t deliver. They say one thing prior to an election and then they don’t deliver. Well the Territory government delivers. We put it right up front. We said if you vote for us we will introduce mandatory sentencing, this will be the regime. They voted for us. We believe that Territorians are overwhelmingly in favour of mandatory sentencing. Do you know why, Mr Speaker? Because they understand it. They understand that there are sufficient opportunities for people to escape detention.
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition himself said, when I introduced the diversionary programs and changes to our mandatory sentencing laws, he himself stood in this House, well in fact on ABC Radio and said, ‘Mandatory sentencing has all but disappeared in the Northern Territory’, because he was trying to get a bit of a crack at me to show that I was weak on mandatory sentencing. Well, I am not weak, but what is in there is sufficient opportunity for those who come up against the mandatory sentencing legislation to avoid detention if they are genuine in mending their ways. If they are not, in they go, and will continue to go in, and this government will not change its policy. If you want to know what victims of crime think about mandatory sentencing, I believe they are overwhelmingly in favour of it, because they see a government delivering on the policies that it went to the election with, and they get some satisfaction that when these crims that break into their homes and trash their homes get caught, they go to gaol.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it’s a pretty base question, to talk about some constituent who I don’t know, I don’t know the circumstances of the case, and then to go to a broad generalisation about what it has done to the victim, how mandatory sentencing helps the victims of crime. I can only repeat the answer I gave before. We’re about to have an election, a by-election. There’s a good chance for a referendum on mandatory sentencing, and Territorians can stand up and they can vote and they can decide themselves. They can decide themselves what they think about mandatory sentencing, and whether mandatory sentencing is delivering for them.
But at the very least, Territorians can be comforted by this fact, and that is that this government, when it goes to an election with policies, actually does it.
So many governments don’t deliver. They say one thing prior to an election and then they don’t deliver. Well the Territory government delivers. We put it right up front. We said if you vote for us we will introduce mandatory sentencing, this will be the regime. They voted for us. We believe that Territorians are overwhelmingly in favour of mandatory sentencing. Do you know why, Mr Speaker? Because they understand it. They understand that there are sufficient opportunities for people to escape detention.
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition himself said, when I introduced the diversionary programs and changes to our mandatory sentencing laws, he himself stood in this House, well in fact on ABC Radio and said, ‘Mandatory sentencing has all but disappeared in the Northern Territory’, because he was trying to get a bit of a crack at me to show that I was weak on mandatory sentencing. Well, I am not weak, but what is in there is sufficient opportunity for those who come up against the mandatory sentencing legislation to avoid detention if they are genuine in mending their ways. If they are not, in they go, and will continue to go in, and this government will not change its policy. If you want to know what victims of crime think about mandatory sentencing, I believe they are overwhelmingly in favour of it, because they see a government delivering on the policies that it went to the election with, and they get some satisfaction that when these crims that break into their homes and trash their homes get caught, they go to gaol.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016