Ex-premier hits out at burglary law
Former Labor premier Peter Dowding has attacked both sides of politics for ushering in mandatory sentences in WA while opposing a mandatory death sentence hanging over two Australians in Indonesia.
Mr Dowding said mandatory sentences introduced by the Liberals and not opposed by Labor would do nothing to bring down burglary rates and argued they breached the separation of powers between Parliament and the courts.
He condemned his former Labor colleagues for being too "cowardly" to vote against the laws for fear of being branded soft on crime.
Laws before Parliament set mandatory minimum sentences of up to 15 years for serious and sexual assaults during home invasions, and ensure adults and juveniles who commit three burglaries go to jail.
"There could not be a greater irony than this pathetic debate being conducted in the week when Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are likely to be executed for crimes they committed knowing that they carried the death penalty - surely proof that mandatory penalties do not act as deterrents," Mr Dowding said.
Mr Dowding, a barrister before and after serving in Parliament, said Labor had a proud history of not buying into the "tough on crime auction" for the sake of votes, citing its abolition of the death penalty during the Burke government.
"That was fiercely resisted by the Liberal Party and it is a classic example where the 'we're tough on crime' position would have been much more easily exploited by supporting the death penalty," he said.
Attorney-General Michael Mischin, who has joined State counterparts in requesting clemency for Chan and Sukumaran, rejected the comparison with the burglary laws.
"A view that their penalty ought to be commuted by President Joko Widodo in these circumstances is commentary on the death penalty, not its mandatory nature," he said.
