Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Shoebridge, I will share the information I have with you, and hopefully, putting it together will answer your question. You're right; the scheme that's being proposed is limited to those who have been convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence and pose an unacceptable risk of harm to the community by committing such a crime again. An assessment of the risk that an individual poses under this regime is based on expert evidence from relevant officials such as psychologists and psychiatrists with experience dealing with serious sex and violent offenders.

There is a significant and well-developed body of research that has guided the development of assessment tools relating to violent and sexual conduct which have been utilised in similar regimes by the states and other countries. It's the intention of the Commonwealth to work with jurisdictions on the implementation of the proposed regime, including by identifying appropriate risk assessment tools. There are a number of state and territory regimes for the preventive detention of violent and sexual offenders, as well as a number of international examples. That's why the Commonwealth will work with states and territories and international partners to understand their experiences using risk assessment tools and expert evidence. There are existing tools for violent and sexual offenders which can be used to guide an expert assessment of their probability of reoffending and to determine what type of intervention approach would be most appropriate. The Commonwealth will closely engage with practitioners and experts to determine the most accurate and appropriate tools to use.