ACT's Record

ACT has driven many of the Government’s important changes in law and order. These changes restore consequences for criminals, and rights for the innocent. They include:

• Bringing back Three Strikes: Sending a clear message to the judiciary that violent and sexual offending has consequences. Offenders get one chance. If they commit a second violent or sexual offence, they receive no parole and serve their full sentence. A third offence results in the maximum sentence. By taking the worst of the worst out of circulation for as long as possible, we make everyone safer.

• Ending taxpayer-funded cultural reports: When ACT entered Government, $6 million a year was being spent on reports for convicted criminals, pleading for lighter sentences based on personal background. These reports insulted victims, who were ignored, while taxpayers footed the bill. ACT had this funding stopped so that justice puts victims, not offenders, at the centre.

• Scrapping Labour’s prisoner reduction target and expanding prison capacity: Labour thought they could lower crime by letting people out of prison and not replacing capacity. ACT ensured that consequences for crime were restored, recognising that removing dangerous offenders from the community is one of the most effective ways to protect the public.

• Introducing new aggravating factors at sentencing: If the victim of an assault is a sole-charge worker, or working in a business connected to their home, this is now an aggravating factor at sentencing. This means longer sentences for offenders who target vulnerable shop staff, bus drivers, and other at-risk workers.

• Strengthening police powers: ACT has backed changes that give Police stronger tools to target gangs and organised crime, while ensuring those powers are not used to erode the rights of law-abiding citizens.

The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it’s gone further than it would have without ACT.