Labor will oppose “urgent” legislation to be introduced by the Abbott government this week to impose mandatory minimum sentences for firearms trafficking, paving the way for Coalition claims that the ALP is soft on national security.
As the government seeks to divert attention from the likely failure of more of its key budget reforms over the next sitting fortnight, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, announced on Sunday his government would reintroduce a requirement that those found guilty of trafficking in illegal firearms receive a mandatory five-year jail sentence – something the Coalition itself agreed to remove from laws passed in February.
The move has set up a rift with Labor on what will be presented by the government as a “national security” issue because Labor argues mandatory sentencing is wrong in principle and will oppose the changes.
“We must keep our community safe and part of keeping our community safe is cracking down on hard on criminals trafficking in illegal firearms. That’s exactly what you’ll get from this government,” Abbott said as he announced the move at Australian federal police headquarters in Sydney.
“I’m not saying that the Labor party are soft on crime, I’m not saying that the Labor party are soft on national security, but if you want to be as tough on crime and as relentless in supporting Australia’s national security as I believe the Labor party wants to be, you should support this legislation.”
In February the Senate passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Psychoactive Substances and Other Measures) bill – which had been introduced by the former Labor government to cover the importation of synthetic psychoactive drugs and to toughen laws on smuggling firearms, but had not been legislated by the time of the 2013 election.
The Coalition had sought to add to the Labor bill the requirement for mandatory minimum sentences, but Labor and the Greens and crossbench senators had refused to do so and the government itself amended the legislation to “reluctantly” remove the mandatory sentence requirement – a Coalition election commitment – in order to get the rest of the bill through the Senate.
“We believe that the Labor party’s opposition to this legislation previously was fundamentally misconceived and because I’ve got to say we’ve had reasonable cooperation from the Labor party on national security, because of our anxieties about the interest of all sorts of people in acquiring weapons that could be used in mass casualty events, we think it’s more important than ever that this legislation pass,” Abbott said.
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said Labor would not change its position on mandatory sentencing.
“There are already heavy penalties for trafficking firearms. There is no evidence that mandatory sentencing works as a deterrent and Labor has a longstanding opposition to minimum sentencing because it is often discriminatory in practice,” Dreyfus said.
“In 2012 Labor introduced legislation that would increase the maximum penalty for firearms trafficking to life imprisonment. That would have made the maximum penalty for trafficking in firearms the same as the maximum penalty for drug trafficking,” he said.
“It was designed to send a very strong message that trafficking large numbers of illegal firearms is just as dangerous and potentially deadly as trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs, and the same maximum penalty should apply.”
Labor has also argued it was unwise in practice because on some occasions a plea bargain could be used to charge ringleaders in crime syndicates.
The opposition spokesman for justice, David Feeney, argued in February that “in creating an incentive for a defendant to fight charges, one takes away from our policing and judicial authorities the opportunity to enter into important bargaining and plea bargaining negotiations with a potential criminal. That, of course, ultimately has the effect of weakening our capacity to investigate and go after the big fish in this very serious world of criminal activity.”
In February Labor was joined in its opposition to the mandatory sentencing proposal by independent senator Nick Xenophon, Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm and the Greens.
