Leader of the Opposition, Lia Finocchiaro, says the CLP supports and values our police and emergency frontline workers, which is why the Opposition is introducing the Sentencing Amendment Bill 2022 at the March Parliamentary sittings.
“If you are cowardly enough to assault police or frontline workers when they’re just trying to do their job, under our proposed laws you will receive an actual term of imprisonment, each and every time.
- The CLP will introduce new Mandatory Sentencing laws for assaults on police, emergency and frontline workers.
- This will strengthen the penalty regime for assaults on police and emergency workers (s189A), and assaults on other workers (s188A).
- Our amendments will make the sentencing regime for assaults on police and frontline workers higher than the penalties for common assaults.
- The most recent Northern Territory Police Association (NTPA) survey shows:
- 35% of respondents had been assaulted in the past 18 months; and
- 82% of those had been assaulted up to three times in that period.
“Strong laws serve as a strong deterrent; they condemn unacceptable behaviour, punish the offender, protect the community, and are consistent in meeting community expectations.
“The CLP Opposition is starting 2022 with a very clear message: everyone deserves to be safe at work, while serving and protecting Territorians. This is our way of ensuring those that protect us every day, are also protected.
“We support our police officers, we support our paramedics, we support our bus drivers, we support our taxi drivers, we support workers and anything less than Labor supporting this important legislative change shows they don’t care about the safety of Territory workers.
“In consultation with the Northern Territory Police Association, which has published damning survey results relating to assaults on NT Police, the CLP Opposition is introducing laws that will strengthen consequences for offenders who assault police and frontline workers. “The CLP Opposition is committed to putting the rights of victims above the rights of offenders and we want to send a very clear message that offenders who attack police and frontline workers will get an actual term of imprisonment,” said Mrs Finocchiaro.
ENDS