Where offences are entirely separate (different victims, different times, different circumstances), a sentencing judge is not required to consider the totality principle in relation to earlier sentences absent a submission to that effect. The interaction between s 25AA of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 and the Mill/Porter totality approach remains an open question where there is a significant discrepancy between past and present sentencing patterns. The width of circumstances that can amount to special circumstances under s 44(2B) has as its corollary that it is correspondingly harder to demonstrate House v The King error in the refusal to make such a finding.
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