NT government to reinstate mandatory sentencing for domestic violence offences

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Northern Territory government is set to reinstate mandatory sentencing for some domestic violence offences, after the Labor government repealed them in 2022. The reforms were welcomed by some, but not all.

Transcript

00:00With domestic violence-related assaults sky-high, the government is set to reinstate mandatory

00:08sentencing for some DV offences.

00:11We want to ensure that the victim's rights is put above the rights of offenders.

00:16Mandatory sentencing will apply for offenders who have breached a domestic violence order

00:20multiple times or who have harmed victims while on a DVO, but won't extend to all domestic

00:25violence offences.

00:27If you breach a domestic violence order, you'll receive a term of imprisonment.

00:31And what that exactly looks like will be at the discretion of the judges.

00:34Mandatory sentencing for DVO breaches was introduced by Labor in 2007, but repealed

00:40by the same party in 2022.

00:42We had, four years ago, an all-encompassing review of the NT Law Reform Commission with

00:48respect to mandatory sentencing, which found that mandatory sentencing wasn't serving its

00:53purpose.

00:54We're seeing increased numbers of persons incarcerated and lack of rehabilitation.

01:00What it might do is it might make victims reticent to make reports to the police.

01:07They might want police involvement for certain situations, but they might not want to report

01:14in circumstances where their partner might go away for a couple of years.

01:19Mandatory sentencing isn't the only thing that's changing.

01:22The government also wants offenders to pay more for victim-survivor services by around

01:2640 per cent.

01:27The bill will also make sure that survivors are notified of offenders' movements, such

01:31as if an electronic monitoring device is removed.

01:35So currently supports and information available to victim-survivors from our perspective is

01:40lacking and so this is one of the elements of this reform that we welcome.

01:45The government will table the legislation in parliament tomorrow.

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