O'Neill, who now lives in the ACT, received a five-year suspended sentence for sexually abusing six children in the 1980s.

He was not jailed, because he is morbidly obese and suffers from several health conditions.

In other news:

In Question Time in State Parliament, Labor's legal spokeswoman Ella Haddad said O'Neill's victims and their families were "outraged that he's not in jail for his heinous crimes".

She said his offending destroyed the lives of his victims, many of whom have never recovered, with at least one taking his own life.

"O'Neil has been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison but because he's so overweight your government has said it's too expensive to extradite him from Canberra to Tasmania to serve his sentence," Ms Haddad said.

"There is justifiable anger in the community that O'Neill has effectively been allowed to walk free.

"Will you intervene to make arrangements for Mr. O'Neill to be brought back to Tasmania to serve his sentence?"

Ms Archer described Ms Haddad's question as "appalling and disgusting" for reflecting on the decision of the court.

"I'm not going to thank the shadow Attorney-General for the appalling question, but what I will firstly say is I do wish to acknowledge the immense courage required for survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward and seek justice," Ms Archer said.

"What I will say to an otherwise, disgusting question, questioning the independence of the courts, the shadow Attorney-General should know better, should know better than to reflect on the decision of a court.

"I will not reflect on the sentencing by a judge, I will not reflect on a decision made by the independent Director of Public Prosecutions which must be separate from political influence."

Ms Archer said it was not her role or that of any parliamentarian to intervene in decisions relating to the conduct of courts which were conducted independent of government.

"Quite frankly, the shadow Attorney-General should apologize," she said.

Ms Haddad said it was "inexcusable" that the government had not done all it can to ensure that justice was served.

"If the cost of getting O'Neill back to Tasmania is the barrier to jailing him, this is putting a price on the suffering of his victims," she said.