Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury says sentence appeals filed by prosecutors show the justice system is working as it was intended and is rejecting calls for a wide-ranging review of sentencing.
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Prosecutors in the ACT are filing a record number of successful appeals in an effort to address sentences the Director of Public Prosecutions said fell "clearly short of community standards".
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions succeeded in the majority of cases it took to the ACT Court of Appeal last financial year.
The growing number of successful appeals has followed ongoing calls from victims of crime and the police union for a review of criminal sentences in the ACT.
Shane Drumgold SC revealed that his office had won a "significantly higher" number of Court of Appeal cases in 2021-22 than in previous years.
"Most of the Crown appeals sought to address sentences for murder and child sexual offending that we considered fell clearly short of community standards for offending of this type," the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions wrote in the latest ACT Bar Bulletin.
The deputy opposition leader, Jeremy Hanson, asked Mr Rattenbury in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday about the appeals.
Mr Rattenbury said prosecutors appealing sentences showed the system at work.
"There is direct and immediate accountability for judges built into the justice system. That is exactly how the system works," Mr Rattenbury said.
"It is there for the independent Director of Public Prosecutions to form these views and to test these matters and for different judges to then review the finding of a judge that has already been made. This is the system at work."
Mr Rattenbury said there had been calls for a review of sentencing and calls for a review of the judiciary.
"Depending on who you are talking to, there are a number of different calls around. My view has been that I do not believe that we need a wholesale review of the judiciary or of sentencing," he said.
"But I have also been clear that that does not mean that there are not particular areas of work that we can do. There have also been calls for review of bail. Everyone wants a bit of a review of everything at the moment.
"The point is that there are pieces of work to be done - there is no doubt about that."
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Mr Rattenbury said he believed people were looking for accountability from the justice system and the sentencing appeals system provided that accountability.
"Sentencing is a difficult and complex matter. ... I think it is difficult at times for people to form a view on these things, because what we see in the press does not often reflect the full circumstances that are presented before the judge and all the factors that the judge or judicial officer must weigh up."
Mr Drumgold told The Canberra Times prosecution appeals of sentences must be "rare and exceptional".
"Part of our appeal role might be to look at a particular category of offending, like murder, for example, and we might think that murder sentences are shifting too far down," Mr Drumgold said earlier this month.
"And what happens is, if we let that go unaddressed, you end up with a collection of precedents that become the precedence.
"So our job is to make sure that the ... precedents are correct and reflect community values."
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the number of successful prosecution appeals was "significantly higher" in 2021-22 than in previous years. As a result of incorrect information published in the ACT Bar Bulletin, it previously said the number of prosecution appeals filed was "significantly higher".
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
