From:HeraldSun February 06, 2013 THE first official election campaign pledge by the incumbent Liberal West Australian government is a proposal to hand mandatory jail terms to burglars who seriously hurt or sexually assault residents while thieving.
THE first official election campaign pledge by the incumbent Liberal West Australian government is a proposal to hand mandatory jail terms to burglars who seriously hurt or sexually assault residents while thieving.
The proposal was the first of an expected series of law and order promises from the party, and came two hours after Premier Colin Barnett asked Governor Malcolm McCusker to issue the writs of election.
If the party wins the March 9 poll and the bill passes, it will represent the nation's toughest laws for violent home invasions.
Mr Barnett said overall crime had fallen by nine per cent, but burglary had gone up, so existing deterrents were not working.
"Every person in Western Australia has a right to feel safe in their home and hopefully this legislation will deliver that," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Under the proposal, an adult offender who breaks into a house and violently rapes a resident will face a minimum of 15 years imprisonment.
An adult burglar who seriously physically assaults a resident will face at least seven years and six months in jail.
And adult burglars who indecently assault a resident will be put behind bars for at least three years and nine months.
For juveniles aged 16 and above who commit serious physical or sexually violent offences during a home invasion, the minimum period of detention will be three years.
In addition, Police Minister Liza Harvey said loopholes in the "three strikes" burglary laws, introduced in 1996, would be closed.
The community expected the three strikes law would mean mandatory jail terms for people who committed three offences, but that was not the case, she said.
"A lot of these people who commit home burglaries are repeat offenders and they will get to court having been charged with, say, 17 or more offences," Ms Harvey said of the "loopholes".
"That appearance in court is then recorded as a conviction and their first strike.
"They may commit further offences, maybe multiple offences, and then the second appearance in court is determined as their second strike."
Ms Harvey initially said getting the legislation through would be the Liberal party's first priority if it won a second term, later saying it would be among its first priorities.
The proposal also would involve amending the Young Offenders Act so that referrals to juvenile justice teams and cautions may be counted as strikes, as would convictions recorded more than two years prior to the current offence.
The plan comes a fortnight after the WA government proposed a three month term in jail or detention for assaults on youth custodial officers.
The state already has mandatory jail terms for assaults against police, which Mr Barnett says has seen instances of that offence drop by between 30 and 40 per cent.
There are mandatory jail terms also for assaults on ambulance officers, transit guards, court security officers and prison officers, and drivers who kill or injure anyone while fleeing police.
Mr Barnett said drugs had fuelled a rise in burglaries.
