Life imprisonment is the most severe criminal sentence available to the courts in Australia. Most cases attracting the sentence are murder. It is also imposed, albeit rarely, for sexual assault, manufacturing and trafficking commercial quantities of illicit drugs, and offences against the justice system and government security.
As of 2022, there are 418 prisoners in Australia serving a life sentence.
Offences and minimum terms Mandatory life imprisonment The death penalty in Australia fell into disuse in 1967, and between then and 1985, each jurisdiction abolished it and (in most cases) replaced it with mandatory life imprisonment. Only Queensland had already abolished the death penalty prior to 1967.
Mandatory life imprisonment was subsequently abolished in New South Wales in 1982,'The history of sentencing for wilful murder and murder', Review of the Law of Homicide, Law Reform Commission of Western Australia https://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/_files/P97-ch07.pdf Victoria in 1986, Tasmania in 1995, and Western Australia in 2008, though it was reintroduced in New South Wales in 2011 for the murder of a police officer.'Murder of Police Officers', LIAC Crime Library, State Library of New South Wales https://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/c.php?g=671792&p=4729414
When the death penalty was abolished in the Australian Capital Territory in 1973, there were no offences subject to mandatory life imprisonment; even so, life imprisonment can be imposed.
Life imprisonment remains mandatory for murder in South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland.
State and territories The criminal law and prisons are primarily administered by state and territory governments within Australia's federal system. As such, there is considerable divergence of which offences can attract life sentences across Australia.
The minimum non-parole period on a life sentence varies between jurisdictions, and between different crimes attracting the penalty. A life sentence in Western Australia, for a crime other than murder, attracts a minimum non-parole period of seven years, while the equivalent term in Queensland is 15 years. For murder, the minimum non-parole period on a life sentence in the Australian Capital Territory is 10 years, as it is in Western Australia (except when committed during an aggravated home burglary, in which case it is 15 years).
In South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the minimum non-parole period for a life sentence for an offender convicted of murder is 20 years. In Queensland, if the offender has been convicted of the murder of a police officer, the minimum non-parole period is 25 years, and in the case of multiple/serial murder or where the offender has a prior conviction for murder, the minimum non-parole period is 30 years. In the Northern Territory, exceptional circumstances can reduce the minimum 20 year non-parole period, but conversely, the minimum non-parole for murder in circumstances of aggravation is 25 years. In South Australia, a guilty plea discount can reduce up to 25% of the minimum non-parole period of 20 years.Sentencing Act 1995 (NT) Section 53A (3) https://legislation.nt.gov.au/api/sitecore/Act/PDF_History?id=17757
The minimum non-parole term for a life sentence in Victoria is 30 years, unless a court considers it not in the interest of justice to set such a term.Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) Section 11A 4(a) http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/download.cgi/cgi-bin/download.cgi/download/au/legis/vic/consol_act/sa1991121.txt
New South Wales is the only Australian state or territory to provide for a mandatory life without parole sentence, specifically where the offender has been convicted of the murder of a police officer.
Following a string of high-profile 'coward punch' related deaths, in 2014 the Queensland government created a new offence of unlawful striking causing death, the maximum penalty for which is life imprisonment.
The Criminal Code of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory also provide for life imprisonment for aircraft hijacking, aiding a suicide, terrorism and for perjuring to procure a conviction of an offence punishable by life imprisonment. The Criminal Code of the Northern Territory also provides for life imprisonment for terrorism and aircraft hijacking, as well as for most other serious violent offences.
Every state and territory except Tasmania provides for life imprisonment for some drug offences, though Tasmanians remain subject to Commonwealth law, which allows for life imprisonment for some drug offences. Primarily, these offences are manufacturing, trafficking or cultivating commercial quantities of controlled drugs and procuring children to do so, and in Queensland, supplying any quantity of particular drugs to children under 16.
Child sexual abuse offences can also attract a life sentence in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. In Queensland, if child sexual abuse was committed by a repeat offender, a life sentence is mandatory and cannot be mitigated or varied under any law. Other offences capable of attracting a sentence of life imprisonment are rape, arson, incest, riot (under aggravated circumstances), piracy and destroying sea walls (Queensland) and treason (Tasmania).
In Queensland, the law also provides a maximum punishment of life imprisonment for aircraft hijacking, burglary or unlawful entry into a dwelling (under aggravated circumstances or by means of a break), armed robbery, violent robbery, attempt to commit armed robbery, attempt to commit violent robbery, conspiracy to bring false accusation against another where an innocent person is convicted and punished with life imprisonment for a crime he or she did not commit, rape, aggravated sexual assault, manslaughter, attempted murder, stupefying (poisoning or drugging) with the intent to commit another indictable offence, disabling with intent to commit an indictable offence (choking, suffocating or strangulating or rendering or attempted to render any person incapable of resistance), and most other serious violent offences.
The Australian Capital TerritoryCrimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT) section 133G(4) https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/View/a/2005-58/current/PDF/2005-58.PDF and Victoria'Young persons' may not be sentenced to indefinite sentences http://www.judicialcollege.vic.edu.au/eManuals/VSM/6116.htm Sentencing Act 1991 (Victoria) Section 18A(1) http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/sa1991121/s18a.html are the only Australian jurisdictions to explicitly prohibit the imposition of life imprisonment without parole on children.
Commonwealth Under Commonwealth legislation, there are 68 offences that can attract life imprisonment.
Sixty three such offences are within the Criminal Code Act 1995, including the setting or placing of explosive and lethal devices; treason, treachery and espionage offences; terrorist acts, as well as preparing or planning terrorist acts and financing terrorism; incursions into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activity and related preparatory conduct (including accumulating weapons, providing or participating in training, giving or receiving goods and services and allowing use of buildings and vehicles to support such offences).
Further offences in the Criminal Code that allow for life imprisonment include crimes against humanity (genocide, war crimes), the murder of UN personnel and various drug offences including manufacturing, trafficking importing and exporting of commercial quantities of controlled drugs and plants, cultivating commercial quantities of controlled plants, and procuring children to facilitate similar drug offences.
The Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991 provides for life imprisonment for hijacking offences, destruction of aircraft with intent to kill and prejudicing safe operation of an aircraft with intention to kill, and the Crimes Act 1914 provides for life imprisonment for piracy.
Notable life sentences with non-parole periods The longest overall non-parole period for a single murder is 45 years and six months, being served by South Australian Michael Barry Fyfe. Fyfe had 28 years added to the 17.5 year sentence he was already serving when he stabbed to death fellow inmate and former police officer Joe Tilley in the kitchen of Yatala Prison in January 1995.
The longest non-parole period imposed for a single murder is 35 years, being served by Melbourne CBD gunman Christopher Wayne Hudson (Victoria).
The longest non-parole period imposed on a woman is 32 years, being served by South Australian Angelika Gavare, who murdered and dismembered pensioner Vonne McGlynn in November 2008 for financial gain, and Victorian Cai Xia Liao, who repeatedly stabbed Mai Mach and her four-year-old grandson Alistair Kwong with gardening shears in a vicious attack.
Notable prisoners serving at least one life sentence with a specified non-parole period: Name State Convictions Sentence Non-parole period Age at sentence Date of sentence Notes Anthony RawlinsQueenslandMurder ×1Life imprisonment with hard labourUndetermined3915 February 1956Deceased; died on 17 April 2010 aged 82. Denied all applications for parole whilst incarcerated. At the time of his death whilst incarcerated at Wolston Correctional Centre, he was the oldest and longest serving prisoner in Australia.William MacDonaldNew South WalesMurder ×4Penal servitude for lifeUndetermined3924 September 1963Deceased; died on 12 May 2015 aged 90. Known as the 'Sydney mutilator' in the media and 'Old Bill' in prison. At the time of his death whilst incarcerated at Prince of Wales Hospital, he was the oldest and longest serving prisoner in New South Wales. He declined to attend a court hearing in 2000 to determine his eligibility for parole, claiming he was institutionalised with no desire to live outside of prison. Terry Mark Hitchins NSW Murder x2 2x Penal servitude for life 24 years 16 15 July 1981 Deceased; died on 26 May 2022 aged 57 years and 9 months from a drug overdose whilst incarcerated at South Coast Correctional Centre after over 40 years and 10 months imprisonment. Hitchins received two sentences of penal servitude for life with Justice John Slattery ordering: "serious consideration be given to prisoner Hitchins spending the rest of his time in prison". In 1993, Hitchins' sentence was redetermined to "two minimum terms of twenty-four years penal servitude" with an additional term of "for the remainder of his natural life" and an eligibility for parole date set as 14 July 2005.https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1336834920/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1639209409https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116471830