The serious offender provisions of Part 2A of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) cannot be applied to Commonwealth offences, even where the Commonwealth offence is a drug offence that could serve as a qualifying offence for State sentencing purposes. When fixing the commencement date of a Commonwealth sentence to follow a State sentence, the sentencing court must account for pre-sentence detention in calculating when the State non-parole period will expire, as s 19(3)(d) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) requires the federal sentence to commence immediately after the end of the State non-parole period. The totality principle continues to apply when sentencing serious offenders, notwithstanding the presumption of cumulation under s 6E of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).
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