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What Parliament Does

Parliament:

• decides what actions are against the law
• sets the maximum penalty for each offence
• creates different types of sentencing orders
• specifies the principles that must be used by the courts.

The Victorian Parliament is responsible for making the laws that run the state, which includes creating criminal offences. Most indictable (serious) offences are contained in the Crimes Act 1958. Less serious offences are known as summary offences and are contained in the Summary Offences Act 1966.

Some offences are in other legislation such as the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 which contains drug offences and the Road Safety Act 1986 which covers the majority of driving offences.

Parliament has also set fixed penalties for some driving offences.

The legislation includes a definition of the offence and the maximum penalty that can be imposed by a court. The maximum penalty is intended to give an indication of the sentence that should be given for the worst example of the particular offence.

The purpose of a maximum penalty is to:

• place a defined limit on the sentence a judge or magistrate can give
• give an indication of the community’s view of the seriousness of the offence
• act as a general deterrent by warning potential offenders about possible consequences of committing an offence.

Parliament also decides what sanctions or orders a judge or magistrate can use in sentencing an offender. These sanctions include orders like imprisonment, fines and community based orders. All of the available sanctions are listed in the Sentencing Act 1991. Information about these orders can be found in the Sentencing Options section.

The Sentencing Act 1991 sets out the factors that a court must consider when determining a sentence.