Parole eligibility
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:14): (331) My question is again for the Attorney-General. Attorney, prior to the introduction of the opposition’s private members bill in June 2023, the member for Mornington in the other place had met with the Frankston community as well as friends and families of Paul Denyer’s victims. The member for Berwick had and continues to have substantial discussions with friends and family. The member for Lowan in the other place has also spoken with family and friends. When your government voted against this bill you stated that advice from the solicitor-general said the risk of successful challenges was too high to name Mr Denyer specifically. What specifically was that advice that caused the families to have to suffer further between June and now?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:15): Ms Crozier, this is not a competition around who is talking to victims and who is not. It is incumbent upon many members of Parliament to do so. If I was to correct the record perhaps in relation to meeting with victims, in relation to the private members bill that was introduced by the shadow corrections minister in June, on the morning of the debate in this place he had not met with the members of the Russell family. In fact he was meeting with them on the day of the debate. I wrote to Mr Battin, and I said to him that:
I am thus asking you defer consideration of your private member’s bill this week, so that the families are given sufficient time to understand the options parliament can consider. Today would be best spent in direct discussions with the impacted family members rather than rushing this debate. I would be very happy to brief you on all of the work –
that we are –
… doing on this matter.
Ms Crozier, it is great that we have what is shaping up to be bipartisan support in relation to elements of the parole bill that I think has been introduced into the Assembly already. It will be here in the last sitting week. The Minister for Corrections has spent a lot of time crafting a package in consultation with the solicitor-general and in consultation with the families. I have sat in the lounge room of the Russell family three times to ensure that this is a suite of reforms that responds to their experience. I am on the record saying that I regret their experience. We could have done better. We should have done better. This package responds to that, and I look forward to the passage of that legislation this year.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:16): Attorney, I note that you did not specifically go to the crux of my question, so I ask: given you now state advice from the solicitor-general supports naming Mr Denyer specifically, will you release this new advice?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:17): Ms Crozier, when you are developing policy for government, when you are developing legislation, you regularly take legal advice from the solicitor-general or others. The solicitor-general provides legal advice, not policy advice. She does not craft bills. That is a function of government. In relation to the questions that she was asked and the advice that she provided, it informed the position that we came to. Of particular interest to me and to the Minister for Corrections was the validity of crafting a scheme that would provide a declaration of prisoners – the worst of the worst. We are talking serial killers, child murderers and murderers who also engage in sexual offending. Had we received advice that said that you could apply a period of longer than 10 years for those people, then that is something that would have featured as part of a package. But we were told that 10 years is probably, based on her legal advice, about how far you can go there, which is why we were drawn to: okay, this is a really good system, a really good reform, for the vast majority of people that have been impacted by a very serious offender of the category I referred to. However, we decided to, in addition to that, name Paul Denyer to ensure that it was – (Time expired)