The Penalties and Sentences (Serious Violent Offences) Amendment Act 1997 (Qld) does not retrospectively affect parole recommendations made before 1 July 1997 where the offender was convicted before s 161A commenced, because such an offender is not convicted of a 'serious violent offence' within the statutory definition. The distinction between voluntary intoxication (which does not mitigate sentence for offences of personal violence) and drug addiction leading to crime (which may in some circumstances mitigate) was clarified: the Hammond analysis of drug addiction as a mitigating factor does not extend to cases of voluntary intoxication where the offender was not driven to crime by desperation. The question whether the 1997 amendments apply retrospectively to offences committed before but convicted after 1 July 1997 was expressly left open.
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