Evidence given at the ACT Assembly inquiry into dangerous driving described the ACT legal fraternity as having "closed ranks" on the issue of appropriate sentencing for these offences and that the system was focused on "a judicial process, not justice".
Tom McLuckie, whose 20-year-old son Matthew was killed in a head-on collision by a woman driving a stolen car on the wrong side of Hindmarsh Drive in May this year, took aim at the ACT legal fraternity, the Chief Minister and the Attorney General at the inquiry hearing on Thursday.
The young woman and alleged perpetrator who drove the car head-on into his son's vehicle remains in acute care and is unable to be formally interviewed and charged.
Mr McLuckie has had three petitions tabled in the Assembly, collectively supported by more than 7000 people, seeking an independent review of ACT judicial outcomes, sentencing guidelines for grievous and reckless driving, and an independent review of the judicial appointment process.
Attorney General Shane Rattenbury has repeatedly said there was no need for this and instead recently announced a new sentencing and law advisory council which he said would provide "public and independent advice to government" on ways to ensure territory laws remain "current and relevant".
Mr Rattenbury is due to give evidence to the dangerous driving inquiry at its next sitting date. So, too are police, who are pressing for tougher road penalties for recividist, dangerous drivers, and to change the charge of culpable driving causing death to vehicular homicide.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr recently was forced to apologise for failing to formally acknowledge those family members who had lost their loved ones to dangerous driving behaviours and had attended the Assembly chambers for the tabling of the McLuckie petitions.
At the time, the Chief Minister said he would not support "US-style policing" in the ACT.
Giving his evidence, Mr McLuckie took the opportunity to deny that he wished to remove all rights to bail, nor seek to introduce mandatory sentencing.
"If the Chief Minister had bothered to read the petitions [submitted to the ACT Assembly], he would clearly know that this is not the case," he said.
In his tracking of ACT motor vehicle offences from May 20 to October 3 this year, he found 24 bail breaches out of 82 reported crimes, and another 19 for breached community orders, parole, and suspended sentence conditions.
Police-generated data recently revealed over 940 breaches of bail by offenders in the ACT for the first half of 2022. The territory is on target to rack up the highest number of breaches ever recorded since self-government.
"There are apparently no problems with our judicial system," Mr McLuckie said.
"They [the legal fraternity] are in many ways a vested interest group.
"Why have someone appear at court once, when you can guarantee you can get to represent them 10 or 11 times? We all have a living to make after all."
He said that the Chief Minister had used "typical political rhetoric" as "the best approach" to defend "ideology ... and failing policies".
He implored the Chief Minister and the Attorney General to "stop politicising the right to safety of our community" and engage in a "collaborative dialogue".
"I implore them to be true to their word and principle of an evidence-based justice policy," he said.
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