The father of a young man who was killed when his car was hit by a stolen vehicle on Hindmarsh Drive in May is preparing a petition to the ACT Assembly calling for tougher sentencing laws for repeat driving offenders.
However, the meeting scheduled for Friday between angry, grieving father Tom McLuckie and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury is likely to be a difficult one given that the Greens leader has already dug in against calls for a review of sentencing in the ACT, claiming such an action was not warranted.
Mr Rattenbury had been responding to Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana, who had expressed his concern at the "soft" sentences being handed down to repeat offenders in the ACT, and "dismay" at the ACT government's current push for drug decriminalisation.
In particular, Mr Caruana was alarmed at the risks posed to officers when a teenager, who cannot be named, went on a two-day crime spree which resulted in him driving a stolen Mercedes along a footpath, then at three officers, before crashing into a police car.
The teenager was on an intensive corrections order at the time of his arrest and "high" on methamphetamine.
This case has been one of many serious, multiple incidents recently involving motor vehicles being driven in a dangerous manner, often by repeat offenders.
Jayden Charles Mann, 39, was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning after allegedly speeding at up to 200km/h and running multiple red lights while on methamphetamine.
On June 9, a man arrested for burglary and theft of a car and number plates had entered into a good behaviour bond only two days before.
And last weekend two men, one a disqualified driver and the other a P-plater, were apprehended by police after high speed drink-drive offences which police said at the time could have had deadly consequences for themselves and other road users.
Mr Caruana said that officers are feeling "let down by judicial outcomes" which allow breaches of orders to occur, saying the lenient sentencing seen in the ACT was not in line with community expectations.
Mr McLuckie, whose 20-year-old-son Matthew was killed in a horrific head-on crash as he had been driving home on May 19, fully agreed with the police view on what he sees as soft sentences being handed down by the courts and he has been instrumental in exposing these systemic issues on social media.
His "ACTnowforsaferroads" campaign on Facebook has attracted well over 7000 followers in just a few weeks.
The car driven by his blameless 20-year-old son, Matthew, was hit head-on by a stolen vehicle driven by a young woman who was on the wrong side of Hindmarsh Drive. Matthew died at the scene while the female driver remains in hospital. A third driver involved has still not been located.
Mr McLuckie's campaign, which has the support of the police association, wants a new and tougher sentencing guideline for offences such as purposeful driving on the wrong side of a thoroughfare or public footpath, repeat drink and drug driving, repeated excessive speeding, collision causing injury, collision causing death, and deliberately driving at police.
Mr Rattenbury said that the ACT government did not think "a wholesale review" was required, and it was "committed to evidence-based justice policy that effectively reduces and prevents crime".
