Victorian Numbered Acts

SENTENCING AMENDMENT (SENTENCING STANDARDS) ACT 2017 (NO. 34 OF 2017) - SECT 19

After section 5 of the Sentencing Act 1991 insert —

        " 5A     Standard sentence scheme

    (1)     If the Act that creates an offence, or prescribes the maximum penalty for an offence, specifies a period as the standard sentence for the offence, then—

        (a)     the offence is a standard sentence offence; and

        (b)     the period specified as the standard sentence for the offence is the sentence for an offence that, taking into account only the objective factors affecting the relative seriousness of that offence, is in the middle of the range of seriousness.

    (2)     An offence of conspiracy to commit, incitement to commit or attempting to commit a standard sentence offence is itself not a standard sentence offence.

    (3)     For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), objective factors affecting the relative seriousness of an offence are to be determined—

        (a)     without reference to matters personal to a particular offender or class of offenders; and

        (b)     wholly by reference to the nature of the offending.

        5B     Sentencing for a standard sentence offence

    (1)     This section applies in relation to sentencing an offender for a standard sentence offence unless—

        (a)     the offender was under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offence; or

        (b)     the offence is heard and determined summarily; or

        (c)     section 162 makes this section inapplicable because of when the offence is alleged to have been committed.

    (2)     In sentencing an offender for a standard sentence offence, a court—

        (a)     must take the standard sentence into account as one of the factors relevant to sentencing; and

        (b)     despite section 5(2)(b), must only have regard to sentences previously imposed for the offence as a standard sentence offence in relation to the sentencing for which this section applied.

    (3)     Subsection (2)—

        (a)     does not limit the matters that a court is otherwise required or permitted to take into account in determining the appropriate sentence for a standard sentence offence; and

        (b)     is not intended to affect the approach to sentencing known as instinctive synthesis.

    (4)     A court that sentences an offender for a standard sentence offence must at the time of doing so state the reasons for—

        (a)     imposing that sentence; and

        (b)     any non-parole period fixed in accordance with section 11 as part of that sentence if that period is shorter than the period specified in section 11A(4)(a), (b) or (c), as the case requires.

    (5)     As part of its reasons under subsection (4), a court must refer to the standard sentence for the offence and explain how the sentence imposed by it relates to that standard sentence.".