Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Petitions

Corrections system

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:49): I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration.

This is a speech I do not want to be giving today about a horrible situation that I wish did not exist. However, despite the warnings and the pleas, this government refuses to act on the issue, so we are left with a situation where over 6500 Victorians have signed a petition to this Parliament calling for action. That is in addition to the over 20,000 people that have called for action on a change.org petition. The action that they seek is not something extreme, it is not something controversial and it is not even something that people are divided on. It is something that is nothing short of disgraceful, and it must be fixed. This petition centres on emergency management days, or EMDs, which are awarded to Victorian prisoners and reduce their sentences. The EMDs were originally meant for extreme examples of prisoners that were denied their normal entitlements. Up to four days of a prisoner’s sentence can be removed for every one day they were inconvenienced due to industrial actions, emergencies, disruptions or deprivations. However, because COVID was declared an emergency, prisoners are getting hundreds of days off their sentences, some even more than a year. As the petition states, over the two years where Melbourne and Victoria suffered through the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns thousands of prisoners received more than 360,000 days off their prison sentences. This is equivalent to over a thousand years of jail time.

The reason this petition came into being is because of a meeting I had with Bianca Unwin and her dad Boyd. Bianca’s sister Katie was murdered in 2018 by her partner Shane Robertson. Robertson was sentenced to 24 years of jail, 19 without parole. However, in May this year Bianca was advised that Robertson had had his sentence reduced by 427 days due to COVID. This will mean that he is now eligible for release earlier than his non-parole period. Since being informed about this reduction – via a generic email, by the way – Bianca, her dad Boyd and their family have done everything they can to raise the issue and do something about it. Despite being irreparably broken, she and her dad are here today, and they have continued the fight for justice. This government argues that as part of the COVID-19 response prisoners have experienced restrictive regimes such as significantly less hours out of cell to support physical distancing or lockdowns or being placed in quarantine. In fact one of the reasons that this was given is that these violent prisoners were only allowed out of their cell 1 hour a day. Doesn’t that sound familiar. One of the fundamental reasons for sentencing people to prison, aside from community safety, is to make them understand the cost of their crime. That includes not being able to go where you want when you want and seeing who you want.

Further, during the pandemic many parts of Victoria were also told that they would only be allowed out for 1 hour a day. So how is it that prisoners are entitled to more compensation than any other Victorians? I want to make this clear: the sickening irony here is that if you were a Victorian that missed a loved one’s funeral, you will not get compensation for that time during COVID, yet if you were somebody that murdered someone in Victoria during this COVID period, you will get compensation. That is disgusting. The injustice is an affront to every person who suffered tangible disadvantages during the COVID period – those who lost their jobs or their incomes, those who could not celebrate a wedding or the birth of a new baby and those who could not say goodbye to their loved ones. Unless you are a Dan Andrews zealot you will understand that these lockdowns affected all of us, and this is something that is still being felt today.

The people that continue to suffer the most are those who have lost loved ones due to violent crimes who are seeing the offenders get compensation in the way of hefty sentence reductions. Violent prisoners do not deserve compensation for something we all went through. The inconvenience experienced by prisoners pales into insignificance when it comes to the loss that people like Katie’s family and communities have suffered.

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (17:54): I rise speak on the petition brought to the house sponsored by Dr Heath, and I thank everyone that has taken the time to sign the petition and share their views on this issue. I know these discussions are difficult discussions to have, especially for victims of crime that have suffered so greatly, and I do want to also mention that there are supports available through the Victims of Crime Helpline for people that need support that are here in person or anyone watching online.

In particular I want to acknowledge the family of Katie Haley for their advocacy on this issue. I have heard from a number of members of Parliament, both in this chamber and the other side, who have made strong representations – Dr Heath being one of them but also Mary-Anne Thomas, the member for Macedon, Josh Bull, the member for Sunbury, and Vicky Ward, the member for Eltham – and have also shared their perspectives and shared your perspectives with me. I know that this is a difficult issue for many victims of crime in how our justice system works, and in many regards I feel that nothing we do will take away people’s pain in many of these matters. Emergency management days are and have been a longstanding arrangement of governments of all persuasions. In relation to COVID-19 there were additional days to acknowledge the hardship and the extended restrictions in that period where emergency management days were implemented.

I became Minister for Corrections in December 2022, and shortly after I came in a lot of those emergency management days that related to the COVID-19 pandemic were removed, but they have been a part of our system for a long time. It has been about providing an operational tool for the staff that work in our system to manage times of crisis and times of difficulty, obviously a pandemic being one of those circumstances. They should be implemented with a balanced approach, and I do understand and as the minister I have seen that during that pandemic period there were some quite large grants acknowledging the challenges of the operational environment.

I do not need to remind everyone about the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and Dr Heath, you have touched on some of that, and those impacts were felt no less in the prison system. Health authorities highlighted the risks of closed environments, the increased risks of the virus spreading, and that was not just a risk for prisoners – I think we always think about the prisoners being the focal point, but it was also the staff, including the corrections staff, the doctors, the nurses, the tradies and the other security team members that work shifts at our correctional facilities. They are people that come and go to the prison system. Some members of this Parliament are former corrections officers, and they would understand that they spend time in the facility but they also spend time in the community. They are community members. To mitigate the risks prison authorities and the leadership of Corrections Victoria implemented unprecedented restrictions on prisoner movement that stopped visits and halted programs to minimise face-to-face contact to stop the spread of COVID.

I know that the restrictions endured by all Victorians were difficult, as someone that obviously also experienced that. It is also true inside our prisons that the restrictions and conditions were more restrictive than normal. Those restrictions were necessary to protect lives and protect the health and wellbeing of the hardworking staff in our corrections system. Like so many essential workers they turned up every day in difficult circumstances, and it meant that we did avoid some of the incidents that occurred in other jurisdictions. In particular we saw in WA and Queensland there were instances where there were prison riots and people that created trouble as a result of those restrictions. We did not experience that in Victoria, and this operational tool was one of the issues that assisted with that. But I do understand every decision made was made to protect the workers and the broader Victorian community. That is what has been explained to me by Corrections Victoria staff.

But I can understand that in criminal justice settings there are difficult decisions that require the balancing of rights, and these decisions can present genuine legal and operational challenges that need to be properly considered. I have always been clear that I expect the prison authorities to take a balanced approach with the use of these tools. I have listened to the debate and thoughtful contributions made so far, and I will continue to listen to those contributions. It is an issue that I am looking into with the safety of the community and the views of victims at the forefront. I think it is a difficult one to balance, especially retrospectively.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:59): Well, Minister, this is a disgrace. This is not a balanced approach. This is favouring prisoners over the rest of the public and especially victims of crime. This is not fair. It is unjust and you should rectify it, and you should apologise to all the victims who are so aggrieved by what has happened with prisoners who have caused such damage to individuals and loved ones being let out of prison early because of the pandemic. The whole of Victoria was locked up half the time for 23 hours a day. They have not been compensated. I do not think the staff in the prison system were compensated either, but the prisoners seem to have benefited from this thing. This is a plan, a project, that was introduced by the Kirner government in 1991 to replace the abolition of automatic remissions being applied to sentences. Much like the situation we find ourselves in, in 1991 the Victorian community had lost faith in the sentencing as prisoners were being granted an automatic remission reduction of a third of their sentence. In other words, a prisoner could be sentenced for 12 years with a non-parole period of nine but be out in six. When Labor wiped out remissions and introduced emergency management days in 1991, they said:

Both the public and judiciary have expressed their concern regarding the length of sentences of imprisonment imposed by the courts and the actual time served by prisoners, especially where a serious crime is involved.

We have victims of crime in the chamber today whose loved ones have been so affected by criminals that are going to be let out of jail early. It is not right, Minister, and you need to redress this situation immediately. When introducing the legislation in 1991 which sought to remove remissions and introduce emergency management days, the then Labor Attorney-General Mr Kennan said:

This policy recognises that the public has a right to know what period of imprisonment will be served by a person who receivesa prison sentence in a Victorian court. It is no longer acceptable to the Victorian public that administrative interventions like remissions and early release should reduce the period fixed as the minimum term by the sentencing judge.

However, that is exactly what is happening now, with victims of crime in Victoria and their loved ones finding out there is a prospect some prisoners will be released earlier than their minimum sentence thanks to an EMD.

Minister, this is not acceptable. You have to do something about it. We all suffered under the egregious restrictions that were placed on us by the Andrews Labor during the pandemic – worse lockdowns than anywhere else in the world – yet it seems the only people that are being compensated in this state for that approach are prisoners who have been convicted of shocking crimes like murder. How can you possibly let this happen? They cannot be released early while the victims suffer. You must do something about this.

It is absolutely terrible, and it is so unfair on the victims of crime who are with us today and all those in the rest of Victoria who are bearing the brunt of this ridiculous policy that you allowed to happen. Now the victims of crime are paying the price. Why should a prisoner get out of jail so early because of the pandemic where you locked everybody else up for 23 out of 24 hours a day in Melbourne. Nowhere else in the world were there such restrictions, and yet not the staff in your prisons, not the general public but the prisoners are the ones that are going to benefit from the fact that there were lockdowns in this state. You have to redress this situation. You have to apologise to the people in this chamber and the rest of the people in Victoria who are so affected by this shocking situation. It is just terrible that Renee has had to gather the 6000 signatures that she has collected and 20,000 on a change.org petition. Twenty thousand people in this state are concerned about this issue. You must listen and you must act.

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (18:04): This is an absolutely shocking issue. The government’s own website has advice for helping people that you know who have been victims of violent crime. It talks about the impact on those victims, which makes it sound like they are the ones in lockdown – they have nightmares, they struggle to go out. Even if they are allowed to go out to exercise for more than an hour a day, sometimes they cannot do it. It is the kind of thing that you really struggle to recover from ever. Then you are retraumatised throughout the whole process – the assault, the investigation, whether or not you get a conviction – and then you can find out in a cold email that the person who assaulted you or who murdered your sister is getting out so early. It is not justice. It is not loving. It is not kind. It is barely humane.

The government has also acknowledged that these emergency management days have caused great distress for victims in this state, and still no proper action has been taken. You brought up the federal issue. Well, the federals in 2021 passed legislation to remove EMD eligibility for federal prisoners in Victorian prisons. This was because federal prisoners were getting early release if they were in Victoria during COVID, and here are just some of the examples. A terrorism-related offender was granted 342 EMDs on remand and then released within hours of his sentencing. The AFP stated that he was a risk to community safety and there was not time to put a control order in place immediately. One thousand EMDs were granted to five offenders serving sentences for attempting, preparing and engaging in terrorism acts. More than 300 EMDs were granted to a child sex offender who was considered high risk and had an extensive criminal history and a history of breaching community-based orders. More than 160 EMDs were granted to a drug trafficker, despite the fact that the court had already considered the onerous COVID imprisonment conditions when sentencing. Both the then coalition government and the Labor opposition supported these changes. They took action straightaway, unlike the Victorian government. While some people raised concerns about the retrospectivity of these changes, which have also now been raised in chambers here, the now Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC said:

… we do not think those concerns outweigh the clear advantages associated with ensuring greater certainty and consistency when it comes to the length of federal sentences and the interests of community safety.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:07): It is with a heavy heart that I rise to support Dr Heath’s emergency management petition in this house today. I consider it a privilege. I want to acknowledge the victim’s family in the gallery today and to extend my condolences and the condolences of all my Liberal Party colleagues for your very deep and very personal loss. Under this Labor government, the state of Victoria stands alone in its appalling use of legislation, like the emergency management days, which benefits – no, ‘benefits’ is too small a word. It compensates violent criminals. In fact I would go so far as to say it is actually rewarding violent criminals, and it is putting our Victorian community and our families at risk.

Other states and jurisdictions overseas have various approaches to good behaviour by prisoners or even special rules that were put in during the COVID pandemic. However, nearly all interstate and many international laws specifically exclude violent or high-risk offenders. These laws were designed to specifically reduce prison populations and reduce infections during COVID, and I note they were applied largely to prisoners in specific circumstances. These circumstances included prisoners who were already about to be released, who had committed minor crimes and had shorter sentences, and they had sensible limits on the amount of prison time that these prisoners could have deducted. In New South Wales, special laws for prisoners were introduced during the COVID period. However, those charged with murder, serious sex offences or terrorism and those who were jailed for life – in short, those who were classed as a serious offender – were disqualified in New South Wales, and by 2023 the New South Wales government had repealed these laws entirely, completely, to ensure that not a single prisoner was being released.

In the United Kingdom, only prisoners who were deemed to be low-risk offenders and were within weeks of their release dates were allowed to be released, but they were also electronically tagged and temporarily released in stages. Under the UK system, offenders could still be recalled at the first sign of concern, and violent and sexual offenders and those of security concern were not considered. France took action to release prisoners who had less than two to six months remaining on their sentence, but only if the offender had not been charged with acts of terrorism, domestic violence or a violent crime. There are a wide variety of examples in the United States of prisoners receiving either prison reductions or early release during COVID, but these were primarily aimed at those who had been charged but were not yet convicted or who were serving shorter sentences, near the end of their sentence, jailed for parole violation, or were incarcerated for nonviolent and non-sexual offences. Even the left-wing state of California had limitations on how many day credits prisoners could rack up, limiting it to only 12 weeks, with less day credits for those who were convicted of violent offences. In California, I might add, they only considered the early release of prisoners on the provision that they would ‘not pose an unreasonable risk of violence to the community’.

None of these reasonable limitations exist in our state of Victoria. Under this government – under this incompetent, selfish Labor government – crime rates are soaring, violent criminals are roaming our streets and the everyday law-abiding, silent majority of Victorians are increasingly at risk in our public spaces and in our homes.

This Victorian Labor government’s only limit for day credits is based on whether an offender has misbehaved while in prison. Victoria is a dangerous state under the Allan Labor government’s irresponsible laws, and it is failing to consider what violence and violent offences put the offender in prison in the first place, or what might occur when these offenders are released. It is simply not optional for this government to turn its back and say, ‘We are discussing; we are considering.’ It is simply not good enough. You must change these laws.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:12): I want to thank Brad Battin for being up in the gallery today and I want to thank my colleagues, but I want to say that I am stunned by your apathy, Minister. I am stunned that we have got victims of crime here – what is it going to take for this government to make a change? It is not a balanced approach to sit in front of victims of crime and to then consider the rights of a murderer before the victims in this group. I just think, my gosh, how long? How long are you going to think about it? Your words were ‘look into it’. How long are you going to look into it? You have had enough time.

The coalition has been asking questions about EMDs for years and is yet to receive any clarity about what sorts of prisoners are getting these reductions and what offences they have been jailed for. We still do not know whether any prisoners were denied Emergency Management Days or what the largest number of Emergency Management Days that a prisoner got were. This was actually a concern that was raised when these laws were first introduced in 1991 by the former member for Berwick, Rob Maclellan. He said:

…the director-general should make a report as part of his annual report to Parliament, including a comment on how many emergency management days are being given and the reasons for them, such as industrial action, fire, flood, or other emergencies. Parliament needs to be kept informed and assured that emergency management days are being used only for emergency situations, not as a surreptitious means of reintroducing automatic remissions.

This is what you have done. You have just put in a blanket reduction for the most violent and high-risk prisoners. If you had have told me during COVID that the only Victorians that would get any sort of – what is the word?

A member: Compensation.

Renee HEATH: Compensation – would be the most violent, high-risk offenders, I would not have believed it. But that is the state in Victoria. Minister, you have the power. Find some guts, stand up and do something, because we need change.

Motion agreed to.