Just in case anyone thinks the Greens were letting some hard core sex offenders run riot by voting against yesterday’s sex offender law amendment, here are the facts:
The key amendment in the bill was not “just implementing the intention of the original legislation”, as the government claimed .
The
Attorney-General’s Report on Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Bill
makes it clear that the power to subject a sex offender to 10 year’s home detention post-release is an entirely new provision.
The existing legislation only allowed for 12 months home detention. Under the present legislation, without the amendment, released sex offenders can still be electronically monitored and be subject to special conditions (such as not to go near schools and kindergartens) – for the full 10 years.
There was no need to ram through legislation in an hour yesterday. Dealing with sex offenders requires well thought out legislation – not rushed lawmaking.