By Karen Fredericks
BRISBANE — Recent moves to abolish parole for prisoners serving more than five years and to deprive all prisoners of the right to vote are indicative of the extent to which One Nation has been able to influence the agenda here, despite holding only 11 of the 89 seats in the state's unicameral parliament.
Two private member's bills, to be introduced by the Coalition's justice spokesperson, Lawrence Springborg, later this month, could pass into law if supported by the 11 One Nation MPs and independents Liz Cunningham and Peter Wellington. The minority Beattie government is powerless to block legislation supported by the rest of the Legislative Assembly.
Both Cunningham and Wellington have indicated "in principle support" for "truth in sentencing" and the exclusion of prisoners from the franchise.
The "truth in sentencing" proposal was conceived in the final weeks of the state election campaign in June, when National Party leader and Premier Rob Borbidge flew into a panic over polls indicating a collapse in the National Party vote and mass defection of National voters to One Nation.
In a last ditch effort to outgun the competition, he rashly promised that if elected he would ensure that serious criminals served 100% of their sentences in high security prisons — no parole. The policy was in direct reply to Hanson's pledge that, under One Nation, "10 years will mean 10 years and life will mean life".
In the aftermath of the election, the proposal has been having some problems, and Borbidge has now delegated it to the 29-year-old Springborg.
Criminological research and common sense indicate that releasing prisoners from high security prisons directly back into society, with no support, no supervision and no gradual reintegration, is a recipe for very high rates of re-offending. On this basis, even the Victims of Crime Association, which has a record of strong support for punitive law and order measures, has refused to support the bill.
In an attempt to answer this objection, Springborg has recently announced a "novel" mechanism whereby prisoners would serve their full term in prison and then be returned to court to be sentenced to a further period of "supervision in the community".
Prisoners Legal Service solicitor Karen Fletcher says the latest version of the proposal is a clumsy attempt to hide the fact that Borbidge's outburst was "ill-conceived and mindless populism".
"This is the parole you have when you can't call it parole", she told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. "The only difference is that it would be granted by a judge rather than a parole board. The whole thing has been a stunt.
"But while the politicians play their games in the media and in the parliament, there are 5000 men and women in Queensland prisons wondering whether their sentences are going to double."
Fletcher said that prisoners and their friends and families "have now become political punching bags, and politicians from all the major parties won't hesitate to get in a punch if they think there might be votes in it".
The proposal to disenfranchise prisoners serving under five years (those serving longer are already excluded under the Commonwealth Electoral Act) is likewise unrelated to any concern for community safety or crime prevention, Fletcher said.
"Preventing prisoners from voting may satisfy those seeking punishment and revenge, but it will not contribute to making the world a safer place.
"Whilst this society treats people who are deprived and alienated with massive doses of further deprivation and alienation, we are not going to reduce violent crime."