Life imprisonment is the most severe criminal sentence available to the courts in Australia. Most cases attracting the sentence are murder. It is also imposed, albeit rarely, for sexual assault, manufacturing and trafficking commercial quantities of illicit drugs, and offences against the justice system and government security.
As of 2022, there are 418 prisoners in Australia serving a life sentence.[1]
Offences and minimum terms
Mandatory life imprisonment
The death penalty in Australia fell into disuse in 1967, and between then and 1985, each jurisdiction abolished it and (in most cases) replaced it with mandatory life imprisonment.
When the death penalty was abolished in the Australian Capital Territory in 1973, there were no offences subject to mandatory life imprisonment;[2] even so, life imprisonment can be imposed.
The criminal law and prisons are primarily administered by state and territory governments within Australia's federal system. As such, there is considerable divergence of which offences can attract life sentences across Australia.
The minimum non-parole period on a life sentence varies between jurisdictions, and between different crimes attracting the penalty. A life sentence in Western Australia, for a crime other than murder, attracts a minimum non-parole period of seven years, while the equivalent term in Queensland is 15 years. For murder, the minimum non-parole period on a life sentence in the Australian Capital Territory is 10 years, as it is in Western Australia (except when committed during an aggravated home burglary, in which case it is 15 years).
In South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the minimum non-parole period for a life sentence for an offender convicted of murder is 20 years. In Queensland, if the offender has been convicted of the murder of a police officer, the minimum non-parole period is 25 years, and in the case of multiple/serial murder or where the offender has a prior conviction for murder, the minimum non-parole period is 30 years.[6] In the Northern Territory, exceptional circumstances can reduce the minimum 20 year non-parole period, but conversely, the minimum non-parole for murder in circumstances of aggravation is 25 years. In South Australia, a guilty plea discount can reduce up to 25% of the minimum non-parole period of 20 years. [7]
The minimum non-parole term for a life sentence in Victoria is 30 years, unless a court considers it not in the interest of justice to set such a term.[8]
New South Wales is the only Australian state or territory to provide for a mandatory life without parole sentence, specifically where the offender has been convicted of the murder of a police officer.[9]
Following a string of high-profile ‘coward punch’ related deaths, in 2014 the Queensland government created a new offence of unlawful striking causing death, the maximum penalty for which is life imprisonment.[10]
The Criminal Code of Queensland,[11] Western Australia[12] and the Northern Territory[13] also provide for life imprisonment for aircraft hijacking, aiding a suicide, terrorism and for perjuring to procure a conviction of an offence punishable by life imprisonment. The Criminal Code of the Northern Territory also provides for life imprisonment for terrorism and aircraft hijacking, as well as for most other serious violent offences.
Every state and territory except Tasmania provides for life imprisonment for some drug offences, though Tasmanians remain subject to Commonwealth law, which allows for life imprisonment for some drug offences. Primarily, these offences are manufacturing, trafficking or cultivating commercial quantities of controlled drugs and procuring children to do so, and in Queensland, supplying any quantity of particular drugs to children under 16.
Child sexual abuse offences can also attract a life sentence in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. In Queensland, if child sexual abuse was committed by a repeat offender, a life sentence is mandatory and cannot be mitigated or varied under any law. Other offences capable of attracting a sentence of life imprisonment are rape, arson, incest, riot (under aggravated circumstances), piracy and destroying sea walls (Queensland) and treason (Tasmania).
In Queensland, the law also provides a maximum punishment of life imprisonment for aircraft hijacking, burglary or unlawful entry into a dwelling (under aggravated circumstances or by means of a break), armed robbery, violent robbery, attempt to commit armed robbery, attempt to commit violent robbery, conspiracy to bring false accusation against another where an innocent person is convicted and punished with life imprisonment for a crime he or she did not commit, rape, aggravated sexual assault, manslaughter, attempted murder, stupefying (poisoning or drugging) with the intent to commit another indictable offence, disabling with intent to commit an indictable offence (choking, suffocating or strangulating or rendering or attempted to render any person incapable of resistance), and most other serious violent offences.
The Australian Capital Territory[14] and Victoria[15][16] are the only Australian jurisdictions to explicitly prohibit the imposition of life imprisonment without parole on children.
Prisoners serving life sentences in Australia (2022)[17]
Most serious offence
Number of prisoners
Homicide offences
392
Sexual assault offences
17
Illicit drug offences
3
Offences against justice
3
Total
418
Commonwealth
Under Commonwealth legislation, there are 68 offences that can attract life imprisonment.
Sixty three such offences are within the Criminal Code Act 1995,[18] including the setting or placing of explosive and lethal devices; treason, treachery and espionage offences; terrorist acts, as well as preparing or planning terrorist acts and financing terrorism; incursions into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activity and related preparatory conduct (including accumulating weapons, providing or participating in training, giving or receiving goods and services and allowing use of buildings and vehicles to support such offences).
Further offences in the Criminal Code that allow for life imprisonment include crimes against humanity (genocide, war crimes), the murder of UN personnel and various drug offences including manufacturing, trafficking importing and exporting of commercial quantities of controlled drugs and plants, cultivating commercial quantities of controlled plants, and procuring children to facilitate similar drug offences.
The Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991[19] provides for life imprisonment for hijacking offences, destruction of aircraft with intent to kill and prejudicing safe operation of an aircraft with intention to kill, and the Crimes Act 1914 provides for life imprisonment for piracy.[20]
Notable sentences
With non-parole periods
The longest overall non-parole period for a single murder is 45 years and six months, being served by Michael Barry Fyfe (South Australia), who stabbed fellow inmate Trevor Tilley in the kitchen of Yatala Prison in January 1995 while serving a 17+1⁄2-year sentence for other crimes.
The longest non-parole period imposed for a single murder is 35 years, being served by Melbourne CBD gunman Christopher Wayne Hudson (Victoria).[21]
The longest non-parole period imposed on a woman is 32 years, being served by South Australian Angelika Gavare, who murdered and dismembered pensioner Vonne McGlynn in November 2008 for financial gain,[22] and Victorian Cai Xia Liao, who repeatedly stabbed Mai Mach and her four-year-old grandson Alistair Kwong with gardening shears in a vicious attack.[23]
Notable prisoners serving at least one life imprisonment with specified non-parole period:
[29] *1994 ‘Truth in sentencing’ legislation reduced an initial 38 year non-parole period to 25 years. Pfenning has the longest non-parole period of any Australian prisoner: he will be 103 before he becomes eligible for parole.
Michael Fyfe
SA
Murder; attempted murder; causing grievous bodily harm; causing death by dangerous driving; assaulting a police officer ×2; several assaults; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; escape lawful custody
Deceased; died of cancer in October 2008. *Miller applied for a non-parole period to be determined in 1999, which was approved and imposed in February 2000.[34]
Murder ×4; aggravated sexual assault; deprivation of liberty
4× strict security life imprisonment
20 years
35
March 1987
[60] *Though becoming parole eligible in 2007, every serving Attorney General since has invariably stated Birnie will be denied parole during their tenure.[61][62][63]
*Changes to NT sentencing laws resulted in a non-parole period being set in December 2004. Crabbe was transferred to a Western Australian prison in 2005, and despite being parole eligible from 2013, successive Attorney Generals have indicated they will not approve his release[68]
In the most extreme cases, the sentencing judge will refuse to fix a non-parole period, which means that the prisoner will spend the rest of their life in prison. Notable prisoners serving at least one sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole include:
*When sentencing, the trial judge recommended Blessington never be released.[79] While this order had no legally binding effect at that time, legislative changes passed through New South Wales parliament since have effectively extinguished any possibility of Blessington receiving a determinate sentence or release on parole.[80] This is despite Australia being signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly prohibits imprisonment without the possibility of release as a punishment for children.[81]
*When sentencing, the trial judge recommended Elliott never be released.[79] While this order had no legally binding effect at that time, legislative changes passed through New South Wales parliament since have effectively extinguished any possibility of Elliott receiving a determinate sentence or release on parole.[80] This is despite Australia being signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly prohibits imprisonment without the possibility of release as a punishment for children.[81]
*Originally sentenced to three terms of life without parole, for three murders;[88] successfully appealed against one murder conviction in April 2011[89]
Allan Baker
NSW
Murder; conspiracy to murder; malicious wounding with intent to prevent lawful apprehension ×2
Murder; conspiracy to murder; malicious wounding with intent to prevent lawful apprehension ×2
Life imprisonment plus 55 years hard labour
25
June 1974
Reduced to one term of life without parole plus 55 years on appeal in 1997[90]
John Travers
NSW
Murder; taking with intent to hold for advantage; assault; robbery; wounding; inflicting actual bodily harm with the intent to have sexual intercourse; stealing a car
Murder; taking with intent to hold for advantage; assault; robbery; wounding; inflicting actual bodily harm with the intent to have sexual intercourse; stealing a car
Murder; taking with intent to hold for advantage; assault; robbery; wounding; inflicting actual bodily harm with the intent to have sexual intercourse; stealing a car
Murder; taking with intent to hold for advantage; assault; robbery; wounding; inflicting actual bodily harm with the intent to have sexual intercourse; stealing a car
Murder; taking with intent to hold for advantage; assault; robbery; wounding; inflicting actual bodily harm with the intent to have sexual intercourse; stealing a car
*Originally sentenced to 40 years for each count of murder and 3 years for armed robbery with a non-parole period of 25 years; sentence increased on appeal in December 2000:[97]
Michael Kanaan
NSW
Murder ×3; malicious wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm ×4; discharging firearm with intent to prevent lawful apprehension; accessory to the fact after malicious wounding
Murder ×5; robbery ×2; conspiracy to pervert the course of justice; kidnapping; robbery while armed; maliciously destroying property by fire; malicious wounding; larceny; supplying a prohibited drug
*Originally sentenced to three terms of Life imprisonment, for three murders;[100] successfully appealed against one murder conviction in April 2011[101]
Murder ×3; exploding an explosive device which destroys or damages a building with intent to murder ×2; placing an explosive substance into a vehicle with intent to murder; maliciously placing an explosive substance near a building with intent to damage the building; maliciously, by an explosion, causing grievous bodily harm ×13
The original sentence included a finite non-parole period, however with judicial parole guidance this amounted to de facto life imprisonment without parole. [107]
In 2014 the Parliament of Victoria legislated that Knight could only be granted parole if imminently dying or seriously incapacitated to the extent he could do no physical harm to any person and demonstrably posed no risk to the community. The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities was suspended for the purpose of this provision.[108][109]
Sentenced to 2× life plus 30 years for two murders and rapes in October 1986;[117] received an additional 12 months for attempted prison escape in 1992, and 23 years and 5 months for further rapes in 2019
Paul Haigh
Victoria
Murder ×6, armed robbery
6× life imprisonment + 60 years
23
November 1980
Haigh was convicted of the murder of an inmate in 1993 and sentenced to a further term of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years[118]
Attempted murder; rape ×13; indecent treatment of a child under 16 ×6; assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company ×3; unlawfully procuring a child under 16 years to commit and indecent act; taking a child for immoral purposes; making child exploitation material; deprivation of liberty; common assault; stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence; torture; unlawfully wounding another
2× life imprisonment plus 80 years
32
December 2011
[127] Mahoney's co-conspirator Andrew Shenfield was initially sentenced to life without parole, but his sentence was reduced to 18 years prison on appeal.
^Affairs, AG; Home. "Crimes Act 1914". www.legislation.gov.au. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abcdeMurdoch, Murphy, Murphy & Murphy v R (1987) 37 A Crim R 118, (NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, 14 December 1987). Available from LexisNexis Unreported Judgements
^R v Malcolm George Baker (Unreported, Supreme Court of NSW, Newman J, 6 August 1993)