A criminal justice advocate has described the Tasmanian government's third attempt to bring in minimum mandatory sentences for serous child sex offenders as "undemocratic".
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But a victim's advocate says the laws would respond to community concern, particularly in relation to the recent sentencing of a Devonport woman for the persistent abuse of a 13-year-old boy.
Attorney-General Elise Archer promised to introduce a bill by the end of the year to bring in minimum mandatory sentences for four serious child sex offences, having been rejected by the parliament twice in the past.
Several other states and territories - as well as the Commonwealth - have introduced similar laws in recent years, each time opposed by legal rights groups.
Australian Lawyers Alliance national criminal justice spokesperson Greg Barns SC said it was "a myth" that sentences for child sex offenders were too lenient.
"We have the courts for a very good reason. They are there to adjudicate and pass appropriate sentences in each and every case that comes before it. To hamstring the court is undemocratic," he said.
"The Director of Public Prosecutions regularly appeals sentences they see as too lenient. That's the way the system should work, not by politicians pandering to ignorance and to myths, and to some primitive sense of retribution."
Mr Barns said it was "dangerous" to bring in laws based on single cases, and it was his belief that the general public had limited understanding regarding how judges reach sentences.
A Sentencing Advisory Council report from 2018 found that sentences for child sex offences in Tasmania had increased significantly from the previous decade.
This included an increase in the median sentence from 4.5 years to seven years for rape involving a young complainant, the lowest sentence imposed for maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person increasing from four months to 12 months, and an increase from seven months to 19.5 months in the median sentence for sexual intercourse with a young person.
The family of the victim in the Devonport matter has written to the DPP requesting an appeal on manifestly inadequate grounds, it is understood.
Beyond Abuse chief executive officer Steve Fisher said the community had an expectation that serious child sex offenders would see longer prison sentences.
"People are outraged at the moment. They were outraged the last two times when it wasn't passed, but they're even more outraged now, especially using that recent sentencing as an example," he said.
"If you're going to have situations where society at large is wondering 'where, what and how?', it's time to take it out of their hands, and make it so pedophiles get sentences that make sense."
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