Page 3522 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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. cease practices that make fluoridated toothpaste unduly enticing and palatable to children (eg the addition of colourings (other than white) and flavourings).
Would Mr Berry please tell the Assembly what action has been taken or is proposed to implement this recommendation?
MR BERRY: I tabled the answer to that last week, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: That question has been answered, Mr Stevenson.
Crime - Sentences
MR CORNWELL: My question is addressed to the Attorney-General. I refer to the recent sentencing of Ian Leslie Bush to life imprisonment for murder following an earlier conviction and five-year sentence for manslaughter, of which he served only a laughable nine months. This matter, as you would be aware, I am sure, was canvassed in last Friday's Canberra Times editorial, which stated in part:
... that Ian Bush was free within nine months of his first conviction makes an absolute mockery of justice or the idea that there is any truth in sentencing.
My question, Mr Attorney, is: Are you taking any steps to ensure that such derisory periods of sentence for such manslaughter convictions do not occur again, and, if not, why not?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, the question of what sentence to impose on a person is a matter for the courts in this Territory. It always has been and, if the Labor Government has its way, always will be.
Mr Kaine: They have to sentence in accordance with the law.
MR CONNOLLY: Indeed. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is a quite long period of imprisonment. I think it may be 20 years, but I am not sure what the original head sentence was. The process by which that head sentence was reduced occurred some years ago. I think it was in about 1977-78 - certainly pre-self-government.
The situation now is that a sentence that is imposed by the courts in this Territory and served within New South Wales is served out in accordance with New South Wales truth in sentencing legislation. We have some doubts about the wisdom of the way that legislation has been structured because it has certainly led to an enormous bulge in persons going through the New South Wales court system. It seems that New South Wales courts now are adjusting their sentencing to take into account truth in sentencing legislation, but the bottom line is that people now serve a sentence that is commensurate with what was imposed by the courts. We may sometimes differ with the sentence that was imposed by the courts, and if the prosecution authorities do that they can and do appeal.
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