The Northern Territory government has indicated it will soon introduce such legislation. This legislation will reintroduce automatic sentencing for people who repeatedly violate domestic violence orders (DVOs). The reopening, led by the ruling Country Liberal Party (CLP), is set to go to debate in the NT parliament on Wednesday. With this introduced bill, lawmakers are conspiring to re-establish an arbitrary one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum-entence. This policy was finally repealed by the last Labor government in 2022.
The proposal has sparked controversy and opposition from a coalition of women's legal services in the NT, including the Katherine Women's Information and Legal Service. They contend that bringing back such sentences would make women's safety a bipartisan political football. This step would result in more people behind bars and at a much higher price tag. The Northern Territory is already wrestling with the highest rates of domestic, sexual and family violence in Australia. According to a recent study, the intimate partner homicide rate in the area is nearly seven times the national average.
Opposition to Mandatory Sentencing
The CLP's proposal has been met with strong resistance from various women's legal services, which have issued a joint statement warning against the political implications of the move.
"Don't play politics with women's safety," said the joint statement by women's legal services.
Specifically, the services are worrying legislators that it would be too expensive and logistically difficult to send all those new offenders to prison. They note that jails are still bursting at the seams.
"Jails are already at capacity, impacting on visitation, professional access and program delivery," according to Hannah George.
George went on to emphasize how these reforms wouldn’t just ignore the root causes of violent behavior but would actually worsen the problems they purport to solve.
Findings from Recent Reports
In 2022, the Labor government repealed the mandatory sentencing provision following a comprehensive report by the NT Law Reform Committee. In short, the commission report found mandatory sentences to be “unprincipled, unfair and unjust,” leading to the forced legislative change. Welcoming the coroner’s findings, the Northern Territory coroner stated that mandatory sentencing had failed in its primary objective.
"We had … an all-encompassing review [by] the NT Law Reform [Committee] with respect to mandatory sentencing, which found [it] wasn't serving its purpose," noted the Northern Territory coroner.
The coroner’s report further pointed out that just enforcing the former policy had resulted in more people being incarcerated without yielding any better results on rehabilitation.
"We were seeing increased numbers of persons incarcerated and a lack of rehabilitation," she added.
Recommendations and Consultation Concerns
Amidst this legislative debate, the Northern Territory coroner has released findings from a landmark inquiry into domestic violence killings of four Aboriginal women in the territory. The inquiry recommended 35 measures to address domestic violence—all of which the NT government has committed to doing so. Recently, warnings surfaced that the impact on state budgets from mandatory sentencing might pose a serious obstacle to this progress.
Additionally, women's legal services have expressed dissatisfaction with the government's consultation process regarding the proposed amendments.
"These reforms will exacerbate these problems, only taking people who use violence 'out of circulation', without addressing the reasons for their behaviour," commented Hannah George.
The services have expressed deep concern over the insufficient consultation. They double down on what’s at stake in these changes by illustrating how these changes would negatively affect the community.
