Mr HARDGRAVE (9:25 PM) —Few in this place would disagree with the simple statement, `If you do the crime, you should do the time.' It has always struck me as one of the great frustrations from the federal parliamentary perspective to note that there is a great variety of fines and penalties that are imposed upon those who have done the crime around Australia. I applaud the effort of the Attorney-General (Mr Williams) in the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to try to slowly but surely work his way through the various criminal codes in this country and to try to get the various vested interests in various state governments to actually sit down and get some consistent treatment for criminals in this country.

I note especially the Queensland government—I suspect, the outgoing Queensland government—introduced a tough set of laws during the last 12 months, laws which I am afraid the Australian Labor Party did not vote for. They are, after all, well known to be soft on crime, and it is a matter of great concern to me as a Queenslander that an incoming minority Labor government in Queensland will in fact fulfil their threat to Queenslanders prior to the election and white ant the tough laws introduced by the coalition government. I am optimistic, though, that one of the gaggle of Independents will not allow this to happen and will obviously vote with the Liberal and National parties in opposition to Labor's efforts to soften the justice act which now exists in Queensland.

People in my electorate welcome clear cut and tough laws in the treatment of criminals in the state of Queensland. But one of the things I would like to raise in the House this evening is the fact that we also need some certainty and consistency for victims of crime. I applaud the efforts of the Victims of Crime Association in Queensland under the leadership of Ian Davies, a man I have known for over 10 years. In fact, I was one of the people on the founding executive of the Victims of Crime Association in Queensland.

The people in this organisation are not after compensation as such. Their primary concern is the way victims are treated by the various systems in this country. When you stop to think about some of the things victims have gone through—not just simply facing the prospect of having some horrible crime, something heinous which none of us in this room would ever wish upon our very worst of associates, even right down to a simple thing as the betrayal of having a purse stolen out of your bag, which is something that has happened to too many people I know—it is important victims are not confronted by a system which treats them merely as evidence but actually does take into account what they have been through.

It is important a victim be treated with courtesy, compassion and respect for their personal dignity and in a way which is responsive to their age, gender, ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences or disability or other special need. They are fair, straightforward and simple to understand principles. It is important the fundamental principles of justice for victims of crime are upheld, and it is important the trauma which victims suffer as a result of crime, which creates absolute chaos in their lifestyles—they lose a basic sense of trust of their fellow man, they lose a great deal of confidence in going out in the outside world—is factored in when it comes to sentencing the perpetrators of the crimes.

Consider the conflict which occurs between families and friends of victims of crime. Consider what they go through. These sorts of matters need to be looked at by those who are sentencing those who have been found guilty of crimes. It is a simple matter. The victim's privacy needs to be protected, their property returned if it was in fact stolen. There needs to be what is now known in modern jargon a `victim's impact statement' when it comes to sentencing. I refer to the Victims of Crime Association's marvellous handbook, which I happily distribute in my electorate, You are not alone: support for victims of crime. It states:

"At the sentencing of an offender for a crime, the prosecutor should inform the sentencing court of appropriate details of the harm caused to a victim by the crime." A victim of crime may present a victim impact statement to the Court to inform the Court how the crime has affected them personally. Victim Impact Statements are usually presented to the Court by the Prosecutor, but can be read personally.

Those sorts of matters need to be taken into account. We need to weigh up laws right across this country, not just in Queensland where a lot of these things have changed over the last 10 years as a result of the Victims of Crime Association's efforts. We need to make sure governments right across the country start to weigh up a bit more on the side of victims of crime to make sure those who perpetrate the crime do the time, to make sure the penalties they face are exact to make them realise the harm they have caused the victim and society as a whole. (Time expired)