Media Release
For immediate release 8:00 a.m. (AEDT) Friday 10 November 2017
An issues paper released today looks at how to create a new organisation that will allow the community to have more input into sentencing in Victoria.
The State Government announced last May that it would create a sentencing guidelines council in Victoria. Similar bodies in the United Kingdom conduct research, consult with the community and develop sentencing guidelines that guide how courts sentence.
The Attorney-General has asked the Sentencing Advisory Council to consult with courts, victims groups, legal stakeholders and the community, and to provide advice about the appropriate features of the new Victorian sentencing guidelines council.
A Sentencing Guidelines Council for Victoria: Issues Paper has been produced by the Sentencing Advisory Council as part of this project, encouraging Victorians to share their views about how the new sentencing guidelines council should work.
As part of its consultation, the Sentencing Advisory Council is hosting two experts on sentencing guidelines councils:
- Lord Justice Colman Treacy – Chair of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales
- Professor Julian Roberts – Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (and member of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales).
Lord Treacy and Professor Roberts will visit Melbourne to meet with key stakeholders and will appear 'in conversation' with the Sentencing Advisory Council Chair, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, at a public forum on the evening of Wednesday 22 November 2017 (at Victoria University, Flinders St).
The Sentencing Advisory Council’s issues paper forms the basis of its consultation process. The issues paper contains an extensive discussion about:
- the purposes of a sentencing guidelines council in Victoria
- the composition and membership of the sentencing guidelines council
- the functions of the sentencing guidelines council
- what sentencing guidelines might look like in Victoria
- what effect sentencing guidelines should have
- any constitutional problems in establishing a sentencing guidelines council in Victoria.
The Sentencing Advisory Council seeks your views on the issues raised, and questions asked, in the issues paper. An online survey is available on the Sentencing Advisory Council’s website. The deadline for submissions and the online survey is Friday 22 December 2017.
Quotes Attributable to Council Chair Professor Arie Freiberg
'A sentencing guidelines council has the potential to address some of the limitations of other forms of sentencing guidance and allow the community to have a direct – and ongoing – say in the development of guidance for the courts.'
'The Sentencing Advisory Council invites all stakeholders and community members to share their views on this significant proposal in order to help tailor a sentencing guidelines council that is right for Victoria.'
