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AAPContact usHelp CentrePrivacy PolicyAbout usView Subscription OffersThe Examiner's complete view of propertyHome/News/Local NewsTasmanian Government to impose mandatory sentences for
serious assaults on frontline health workersBy Matt MaloneyUpdated October 3 2016 - 4:47pm, first published 4:30pmBy Matt MaloneyUpdated October 3 2016 - 4:47pm, first published
4:30pmFacebookTwitterWhatsappEmailCopyLaunceston paramedic Dave Thomas says that frontline health workers run the risk of being assaulted on any day of the working week. LAUNCESTON’S Dave
Thomas was never assaulted during his nine years on the police force but has been inflicted by violence while serving as a paramedic.
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50% off EOFY SaleAll articles from our website & appThe digital version of Today's PaperCrosswords, Sudoku and TriviaAll other regional websites in your areaContinue He said minor assaults
were generally accepted by workers, who were often left feeling like they did not have enough protection, as par for the course.
“We have the highest work-related injuries out of any field,” Mr Thomas said.
“You get assaulted when you are trying to help people which is clearly unacceptable.”
The state government has announced it will extend mandatory minimum sentences for attacks against emergency service and health workers, ignoring the Sentencing Advisory Council’s advice in
2013 that doing so was “crude policy”.
The move follows a mandatory minimum sentence of six months for assaults on police officers, for which nobody has been charged despite police officer assaults climbing by 30 per cent to 242
attacks in 2015-16.
The new draft laws will extend this mandatory period to paramedics, nurses, midwives, corrections officers and child protection workers.
A bill has been released for consultation and is set to be tabled in Parliament in three weeks’ time.
Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin said that the safety of frontline workers was at-risk on a daily basis.
“We believe it’s unacceptable for frontline workers to be seriously assaulted and that there needs to be an appropriate response to that and a strong deterrent to would-be offenders.”
The Sentencing Advisory Council in 2013 recommended against mandatory minimum sentences for assaults on emergency service workers.
Instead it recommended increasing the maximum penalties for assaulting a police officer or an emergency service worker.
Mr Thomas said that mandatory sentences would only be imposed on assaults which resulted in major physical damage caused him concern and that the provision was unlikely to act as a deterrent
for those people prone to causing assaults while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Health and Community Services state secretary Tim Jacobson said previous court rulings on paramedic assaults had been too lenient.
He said the union held reservations over the new legislation, however, and hoped that perpetrators with mental health or other impairments were spared from minimum sentences.
Opposition justice spokeswoman Lara Giddings said while frontline workers should not be subjected to violence, mandatory sentencing did not work.
“A person who at the time of the assault is suffering a mental illness episode or is under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not going to be deterred by a mandatory sentence,” she said.
“Added to this, the courts will be unable to take into account the circumstances of the assault, for example the mental health state of a person when the assault took place.
“Judges and magistrates should decide the severity of someone’s punishment based on all the available evidence.”
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