Chris Sumner as Labor attorney general in 1985 enacts Australia-first crime victims' rights to court impact statement
South Australian Labor government attorney general Chris Sumner (left) had support from Liberal party counterpart Trevor Griffin (right) in introducing the Australia-first range of measures to increase the rights of victims of crime in the 1980s.
South Australia became the first Australian state in 1985 to introduce victims of crime statements to the courts.
State Labor government attorney general Chris Summer led introducing the victims of crime legislation, with strong support by the Liberal party and its shadow and government attorney general of that era, Trevor Griffin.
A prelude to legislation was the Victims of Crime Service (later to became the Victim Support Service) formed in 1979 by South Australian parents struggling to cope with the senseless murder of their loved ones. Their push, to improve outcomes for victims of crime, attracted the interest of former Queensland police commissioner Rod Whitrod. Victims of Crime Service/Victim Support Service later became a government-funded organisation helping crime victims.
As South Australian attorney general, Sumner became involved in the World Society of Victimology. He was the leading spokesperson for the Australian delegation at the 1985 United Nations congress on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders in Milan that made the declaration of the rights of victims of crime and abuse of power.
In late 1985, Sumner introduced to the South Australian parliament the full package including an administrative declaration of victims’ rights and that the effect on the victim was a factor that had to be taken into account. Summer explained that “even though that was always at common law the case, the issue was whether or not the judge had the sufficient information to take into account the effect of the crime on the victim at the time of sentencing."
The victim impact statements were designed to make sure that the judge had all that information and could take them into account”. South Australia also imposed a victims of crime levy to provide a dedicated fund to compensate crime victims. The fund included money provided by parliament, a proportion of fines paid b offenders, confiscated proceeds of crime, and a levy imposed on convictions and on expiation of offences (payment of on-the-spot-fines).
Confiscating the profits of crime was also an Australian first for South Australia. The victims of crime reforms, such as the impact statement, were strongly contested by sections of legal fraternity, especially defence lawyers, but evolved to be a vital and necessary part of South Australia’s criminal justice system.