Baseline sentencing has commenced in Victoria, coming into effect 2 November 2014 after amendments to the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) by the Sentencing Amendment (Baseline Sentences) Act 2014 (Vic).
The baseline sentence is the sentence that parliament intends as the median sentence for the offence. When sentencing for any of the six baseline offences committed on or after 2 November, Victorian courts are now required to sentence in accordance with that intention.
The median is the mid-point when all sentences imposed for an offence over a given period are ranked from lowest to highest. Half of the sentences imposed for the offence will be lower than the median and half will be higher.
The six baseline offences and their corresponding baseline median sentences are:
- murder – 25 years
- trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence – 14 years
- persistent sexual abuse of a child under 16 – 10 years
- incest with a child under 18 by a parent, step-parent, or de facto parent – 10 years
- sexual penetration of a child under 16 – 10 years
- culpable driving causing death – 9 years.
A further baseline sentence of 30 years for the murder of an emergency worker while on duty has been introduced by the Sentencing Amendment (Emergency Workers) Act 2014 (Vic).
The new law also sets minimum non-parole periods for baseline offences. When sentencing a case that involves at least one baseline offence for which a term of imprisonment has been imposed, the court must fix a non-parole period of:
- 30 years if the total effective sentence is a term of life imprisonment
- 70% of the total effective sentence if the term is 20 years or more
- 60% of the total effective sentence if the term is less than 20 years.
The Council recently released its Calculating the Baseline Offence Median: Report, which outlines the method of calculation of the median sentence under the new scheme.
