Sentencing advice council a positive step but review 'still needed': Tom McLuckie

Tom McLuckie said it was a positive step but not the same as doing a review.

"I think [a review is] warranted if you look at some of the precedents we have set ... on prison sentences as a last resort during a sentence even when the sentence should reflect the impact on a victim. I think we've gone too far the other way here," Mr McLuckie said.

The ACT government on Friday announced it would re-establish a law reform council, with its remit expanded to consider sentencing in the territory.

Mr McLuckie on Friday presented three petitions to Deputy Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson, which called for sentencing guidelines for reckless motor vehicle crimes, a review of ACT sentencing and a review of judicial appointments.

The petitions attracted a total of more than 7700 electronic signatures.

Mr McLuckie launched the petitions after his 20-year-old son, Matthew, was killed on May 19 by a person driving on the wrong side of the road in a stolen car.

Mr Hanson, who said he would table the petitions in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, also supported the establishment of the advisory council.

"We welcome it but the devil is in the detail, and it's an acknowledgement that the system's broken. I think that for the first time now we have that acknowledgement that the system's broken," Mr Hanson said.

"There are great injustices happening when it comes to sentencing and bail - we see too many perpetrators out on bail and committing other violent offences. It is a good step but it's not going to fix the problem."

The ACT Bar Association on Friday said a review of sentencing and bail decisions was unnecessary.

"With respect to calls for harsher penalties and bail laws, once again the Bar Association simply says that this is entirely unnecessary," the association said in a statement.

"Tougher laws will not resolve the issues underlying criminal offending which often lie in abject social disadvantage, disengagement and drug addiction."

The association also said a review of the judiciary would be an "undue waste of limited community resources".

Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said he hoped a new advisory council to consider law reform and sentencing in the ACT will meet some of the high community expectations for action on criminal sentences.

"I hope that this will meet some of those community expectations - perhaps not everybody's," he said.

"What we have done is try to take a considered approach into how we make a lasting impact and a positive impact - and I think this mechanism is a good way to do that."

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The previous ACT law reform advisory council was closed in the last term of government.

Mr Hanson said he would move a motion of no confidence in Mr Rattenbury if he failed to announce a wide review of criminal sentences.

But Mr Rattenbury has long resisted the pressure to call a review of that kind.

"A one-off sentencing review will give you a point-in-time answer, but I actually think having a group that can do sustained work ... puts the territory in the best position," Mr Rattenbury said.

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