Penalties and Sentences Act 1992

A court that imposes an indefinite sentence, or a court of like jurisdiction—

must for the first time review the indefinite sentence within 6 months after an offender has served the period of time stated in subsection (2) or (2A); and

must review the indefinite sentence at subsequent intervals of not more than 2 years from when the last review was made.

For subsection (1)(a), the period of time the offender must have served is—

for an offender whose nominal sentence is life imprisonment for an offence of murder—

if the Criminal Code, section 305(2) applies on sentence—30 years; or

if the Criminal Code, section 305(4) applies on sentence—25 years; or

otherwise—20 years; or

if the offender’s nominal sentence is life imprisonment and paragraph (a) does not apply—15 years; or

if the offender’s nominal sentence is a term of imprisonment other than life for an offence against the Criminal Code, section 314A—the lesser of the following—

80% of the offender’s nominal sentence;

15 years; or

otherwise—50% of the offender’s nominal sentence.

However, for subsection (1)(a), if the indefinite sentence is imposed on the offender as the base component of a sentence under section 161R(2), the period of time the offender must have served is worked out by adding the relevant further period to the period of time the offender would otherwise be required to have served under subsection (2).

Subject to section 172, the director of public prosecutions must make any application that is required to be made to cause the reviews mentioned in subsection (1) to be carried out.

A court that imposes an indefinite sentence for which the nominal sentence is, under section 161E(2), life imprisonment or a court of like jurisdiction must for the first time review the indefinite sentence within 6 months after the offender has served 20 years and not the 15 years or 50% of the nominal sentence as prescribed under a previous subsection.

In this section—