Adams Amy: Parole Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAdams Amy: Parole Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1666. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister of Justice): I move That the Parole Amendment Bill be now read a third time. The bill implements the Government’s policy to reduce the number of unnecessary parole hearings where the offender has little prospect of release. It also includes a range of other measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the parole system. There is general agreement that hearings where the offender has yet to address the reasons for their offending and continues to pose a risk to the community serve little purpose. They also cause unnecessary stress for victims for whom parole hearings can often be a significant cause of anxiety. Under the current Parole Act the Parole Board is generally required to consider each offender at least once in every 12 months after they become eligible for parole. On average each offender has three hearings before they are approved for release and a third of all offenders have four or more hearings. It is estimated that in excess of 800 parole hearings that do not need to take place are held each year.The bill increases the maximum interval between the hearings and the general run of cases from 1 year to 2 years. This will give the board greater flexibility in scheduling future hearings and the ability to better align future hearings with the completion of core components of the prisoner’s sentence plan. The bill requires the board when it declines to release an offender on parole to specify when the offender will next be considered for parole. It also gives the board the power to identify any relevant activities that it expects to be completed before the next hearing. To provide an incentive for prisoners to address the reasons for their offending the bill includes a new process for having their cases brought forward where the specified activities are completed earlier than expected.The bill also makes significant changes to the revisions relating to postponement orders. Under the current Act the Parole Board can make one of these orders where it is satisfied that in the absence of a significant change in the offender’s circumstances they will not be suitable for release at the time when they are next due to be considered for parole. Currently the board can make orders for up to 3 years for prisoners serving indeterminate sentences and up to 2 years for other prisoners. The increase in the maximum interval between hearings from 1 to 2 years in the normal run of cases will remove the need for postponement orders for prisoners serving sentences of less than 10 years. The bill therefore restricts postponement orders to prisoners subject to indeterminate sentences—that is life imprisonment and preventive detention—and determinate sentences of 10 years or more. The maximum term of a postponement order will be increased to 5 years accordingly.The Parole Board makes 30 to 40 of these orders each year and they play an important role in parole decision-making. They are commonly made for offenders convicted of the very worst murders who continue to pose a serious risk to the community. Importantly the orders provide comfort to the families of victims. In these cases the board will now be able to make an order postponing the further consideration of an offender for up to 5 years as is appropriate.In addition to these important changes the bill includes a number of other measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Parole Board’s operations and to reduce the number of unnecessary hearings. These measures include transferring the power to deal with written applications from prisoners to have their hearings brought forward from a panel of board members to the chairperson or a panel convenor and removing the procedural steps in the Parole Act for deciding whether a hearing should be held as an attended or unattended hearing. The bill takes a more practical approach of specifying the circumstances in which the board can conduct an unattended hearing although the prisoner will have the right to attend if they wish to do so.Parole hearings can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety for victims. This bill is further demonstration of our commitment to put victims at the heart of our justice system. The measures outlined in the bill will better support victims by making significant improvements to the parole system which performs an extremely important role in keeping our communities safe. I commend the bill to the House.