Sentencing Act 1995

In this section —

This section applies if —

a court is sentencing an offender to imprisonment for an indictable offence; and

the offence —

involved the use of, or counselling or procuring the use of, or conspiring or attempting to use, a firearm against another person; or

involved the use of, or counselling or procuring the use of, or conspiring or attempting to use, serious violence against another person; or

resulted in serious harm to, or the death of, another person.

The sentencing court may declare the offence committed by the offender to be a serious offence for the purposes of —

the High Risk Serious Offenders Act 2020; and

the Sentence Administration Act 2003 Part 5A.

The court must regard the existence of any of the following circumstances as an aggravating factor when deciding whether to make a declaration —

the offender has a history of violent offending;

the offender was in a family relationship with a victim of the offence when the offence was committed;

a victim of the offence was under 12 years of age when the offence was committed.

A declaration may be made by the court on its own initiative or on an application by the prosecutor.

In addition to subsection (2), this section applies if —

a court is sentencing an offender to imprisonment for an offence; and

the offence is a family violence offence (category B); and

the offender is a serial family violence offender, whether the offender was so declared by —

the court referred to in paragraph (a) at the time of the offender’s conviction for the offence referred to in that paragraph; or

another court.

In a case where subsection (6) applies, the sentencing court must make a declaration under this section.

This section does not limit the ability of a court to make a declaration in relation to the same person under section 124E.