August 11, 2023
ACT promises end to cultural reports
Justice will be blind if ACT make it into Government in October.
ACT leader David Seymour says the party intends to scrap cultural reports.
The reports, which can be requested by any offender facing sentence on criminal charges, are about putting more information before the court about their background and whether there are factors which have caused them to offend.
Mr Seymour says no crime is justified because people are alienated from their culture, and the reports have resulted in weak sentences being handed out for grotesque crimes.
He says that part of the Sentencing Act ignores public safety, and ACT would change the law so judges must also consider disproportionate risk to the community, the risk to the victim, and the historical impact of the offending on the victim.