Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Existing Life Sentences) Bill 2005
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: I speak on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party on the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Existing Life Sentences) Bill. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 and the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999. These amendments seek to ensure that the current regime for redetermination of existing life sentences of “never to be released” offenders extends to all those offenders whose original sentences have not yet been redetermined, and applies to those offenders even if the original non-release recommendations are now appealed. I commend the bill to the House.
This bill closes the legal loophole within the current sentencing legislation that was exposed in the recent Supreme Court judgment of Justice Dunford in R v Bronson Mathew Blessington, decided only last month. Justice Dunford’s decision held that an offender with a section 13A application under the relevant legislation that was pending as at 8 May 1997 is not subject to the current rules for redetermination. The current rules for redetermination are much stricter than those rules in place at the time Bronson Blessington was sentenced.
The Supreme Court judge’s position aired the possibility that Blessington, and perhaps others who have not had their application for release determined, might now be able to appeal the sentencing court’s recommendation that they never be released. In this bill the Government wants to set in concrete the fact that the “truth in sentencing” legislation, allowing for sentence redetermination after 30 years rather than the previous eight years, is applicable to all those individuals who had the words “never to be released” pronounced over them. Though lawyers have argued that the words “never to be released” had no effect according to the law at the time, it is completely understandable that the Government wants to take a hard line on those who have committed atrocious and despicable murders.
Rather than wait to see the progress of the case through the courts, the Government has decided to introduce this bill to avoid any further controversy. As the Attorney General, Bob Debus, stated in his second reading speech:
The Government has continuously stated that it would protect the community forever from never-to-be released prisoners.
In his speech the member for Wagga Wagga, Mr Daryl Maguire, referred to some comments made by Beverley Balding, the mother of Janine Balding. We, of course, know that Janine Balding was murdered in a heinous manner by a number of those individuals marked “never to be released”. Beverley Balding had the following to say about Bronson Blessington:
Although Blessington was only 14 (one month off 15 years of age), he was an uncontrollable child, and had been on the streets for quite some time before he and the others took part in Janine’s horrific rape and murder. There is no excuse whatever for what they did, and they were all old enough to know right from wrong.
Our main worry has been that if, by any chance Blessington was released, he would not keep up the “good work” of teaching scripture he is supposedly doing in prison and would return to crime. Justice Newman surely handed down the correct decision when he recommended never to be released.
I acknowledge that the Hon. Peter Breen knows more about Bronson Blessington than anybody in this Chamber because of his close professional association with him. However, I take Beverley Balding’s point that Bronson was capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong. I took calls over a long period of time on talkback radio and I found not one comment from the community at large in support of Bronson Blessington’s early release or the fact that he be removed from “never to be released” status.
Bronson Blessington was one of a number of people who participated in the dreadful killing of Janine Balding in 1988. He was only 14 years old when he involved himself in the murder. Bronson has had a very sad life, as even Janine’s mother indicated. By the age of 14 he had been sexually abused by four adult males. He was a street kid, an alcoholic, a petrol sniffer, and basically uncontrollable. I have been informed on good, reliable authority from those who work within the prison system that when he became a Christian in 1990 his life very dramatically changed.
Over the past 14 years or so his Christian life has made Bronson an outstanding model prisoner. He has said that the Lord has led him to lead more than 580 Bible studies within the prison yards, with an attendance of well over 5,500 prisoners. I commend him on the step that he has taken to invite Christ into his life. Staff of mine from Wesley Mission, who go within the prison system, speak most highly of his complete change of life through his Christian commitment. His Christian witness in prison will continue to be powerful witness of the power of Christ to change people. If Blessington is preaching to prisoners, I would encourage him to keep on doing so. But can he continue to be a Christian in gaol? That is what Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, the apostles Peter and John, and a million other twentieth century Christians have done.
I do not want in any way, shape or form to diminish the suffering that Bronson and others in his company caused to the Balding family, but the retrospectivity of this legislation presents an issue for Bronson Blessington and others who were under the apprehension that one set of laws applied, only to find out that they were subject to other sets of laws. That is an issue for the Government to debate, and because Bronson Blessington has become a Christian does not mitigate against his horrific crime and cannot be used to justify any reduction in his sentence. The amendments will ensure that section 154A of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 applies to a never-to-be-released offender, regardless of whether the non-release recommendation has been quashed, set aside or called into question.
I wish Mr Blessington well in his continuing experience as a Christian within gaol. Nevertheless, I do feel strongly that this legislation is important and must be passed because it will give those still grieving over the loss of their loved ones a great deal of comfort and consolation.