Chapter 1: What is the appeal date set for Erin Patterson?
A listener production. Hi, Sasha Barbagat with you. Welcome to The Briefing. After years of pressure from survivors and advocates, one Aussie state has changed its laws around sentencing sexual offenders and campaigners are calling it a major breakthrough.
We have held up a mirror to the country and asked, when we are confronted with horrific violence, why is it that we reach for language that wants to soften it? Why are we calling child sex offenders champions of young people? Why are rapists being described as top blokes?
A deep dive into the place of good character references in our legal system and the campaign to have the laws changed right across the country is coming up in the second half of this episode. First, as always, it's time for the headlines with Chris Spirou on Thursday the 28th of May.
Morning, Sash. Erin Patterson's next court date has been set as she launches her appeal. The convicted triple murderer will front court in mid-August trying to have her four convictions quashed. The 51-year-old is serving three life sentences with a non-parole period of 33 years for murdering her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson.
She was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian, the sole survivor of her death cap mushroom beef Wellington lunch.
According to court documents, Patterson's lawyers will argue she was subjected to a substantial miscarriage of justice on multiple grounds. They're challenging key evidence, including cell tower data, online mushroom sighting records and testimony from Facebook friends.
They'll also argue the jury's integrity was compromised after it emerged they were staying in the same hotel as prosecutors, police and media.
And it's not the only appeal in play. A reminder that the Department of Public Prosecutions is also arguing against her 33-year non-parole period. They appealed it last year saying that it is manifestly inadequate. Erin Patterson is currently being held in isolation at a maximum security women's prison in Melbourne's West and won't be eligible for parole until she's 82 years old.
Overseas now, where five of the seven people who have spent a week trapped in a cave in Laos have been found alive and are being prepared for extraction. The group of villagers first entered the cave on Wednesday last week in search of gold and wildlife, but couldn't get out after heavy rain and landslides flooded the cave's entrance.
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Chapter 2: How many people will be cut from the NDIS and why?
Yeah, I think it's always amazing though when, you know, the footage has come out of like the camera coming up and like seeing this group and they're smiling and waving and it's like can you imagine sitting in that cave for a week going, well, this might be it, guys. No one's found us.
And, you know, not only, you know, the jubilation for them but also for the rescuers who are trying to find them to be able to finally lay eyes on them. As you said, it's a hard mission ahead but at least a bright spot that they've actually found them.
back home now and it's been revealed more than 240,000 people will be kicked off the NDIS when new eligibility rules come into force. A release of internal documents has revealed the modelling which takes into account changes to who can access the scheme and subjecting participants to standardised assessments.
The number is much higher than the initial figure of 160,000 put forward by the Health Minister when he announced the changes.
Now, it's worth noting the reforms will start from January 1st, 2028, and affected participants will come off the scheme over four years. So that 240,000 figure isn't going to be an initial hit. It'll happen in a gradual manner.
Details of the new eligibility rules haven't been formalised yet, but they are set to determine a person's suitability for the NDIS based on their functional capacity rather than diagnosis alone. And the reforms are set to save the ballooning scheme $37.8 billion. After warnings, it was projected to cost $117 billion a year in a decade's time.
There are concerns from advocates, though, that these changes are going to lead to worse outcomes for disabled Australians. We heard from the Greens disability spokesperson, Jordan Steele-John, who kind of criticised how the government's calling it efficiencies and we have to do this.
But he says it's going to mean, quote, more assessments, more bureaucracy, more barriers and constant anxiety for disabled Australians. It is expected that autistic people are going to be the biggest cohort that's going to end up off the NDIS with these changes. It is hoped by the government that they're going to be pushed towards disability.
state and territory programs rather than the NDIS basically saying that those are better suited to their needs. The issue though right now, and this is coming from the states and territories, is that either those programs don't exist or they don't have the capacity to take on all those extra people.
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Chapter 3: What changes are being made to sentencing laws for sexual offenders?
Now, that'll see the standard 50% discount completely abolished for most assets and instead replaced by an inflation adjusted indexation model. Now, Labor has been facing increasing pressure from the business sector and even from some MPs within the party. to only apply the changes to the CGT to investment properties and make non-property investments like small businesses exempt.
But Jim Chalmers has also been told to stay the course. Former PM Paul Keating is leading the support of the budget in its entirety. He says further exemptions would further distort the economy.
Yeah, and it is worth noting that there are some capital gains tax exemptions for small businesses and sectors at the moment as it is. So, you know, there are some people that are saying, especially on the back end of that AI Albo campaign, they're like, well, yeah, I love really hamming this up to be something that it's not. But look, the government is trying to rush through the changes.
However, the Greens and Coalition could team up to have some sections of the bill sent to parliamentary inquiries. The changes are due to come into effect from July 1 next year.
And in a comeback for the ages, New South Wales has beaten Queensland in Sydney to claim game one of the 2026 State of Origin Series. After shooting to a... 20-0 lead in the first 20 minutes of the clash at a soggy stadium, Australia. The Maroons went on to concede 22 points, all of which I missed, Chris, because I tuned out at that 20-minute mark. I went to bed.
My husband went off to play his computer games and then wake up this morning and they bloody did it.
Yeah, I know.
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Chapter 4: How do good character references affect sentencing in Australia?
Huge. I was also at an event and we tuned out. We were like, we're not going to do this. We then flicked it on and listened to it on the radio as we were coming home. And I was like... This is diabolical for the Blues. And then by the time I got home, I saw the final score. It was 20 to 22. You described it right. It was a comeback for the ages. It was great.
And I mean, you are so lucky too because you live so close to the stadium and you got to hear it.
Yeah, so we actually had to shut our balcony door because we were about a minute on the live broadcast behind. Oh, yeah. So we'd hear the cheers out the window and go, oh, okay, that sounds like a slightly quieter cheer, so it's probably Queensland scored a try and sure enough a minute later Queensland would score a try.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the 'Your Reference Ain't Relevant' campaign?
So we had to shut our windows and doors. But the series now goes to neutral territory. The sides will face off at the MCG on June 17 in Game 2. So New South Wales will either tie it up or Queensland will come back. But it's worth noting, Queensland were very good in that first 20 minutes. So this series is by no means dead. This was kind of an escape. For the Blues.
A very lucky escape.
Yeah, so there are lots of questions about whether they can actually beat them again in game two. So we'll see.
That's right. Alrighty, that is it for our headlines for today. Coming up next is my deep dive with a survivor of sexual abuse who's been campaigning for changes to sentencing laws. One state has made the changes that he's been fighting for and he's hoping it sends a message to the rest of the country. Stick around, that deep dive's coming up for you next.
Hey, a heads up before we get into this deep dive. It does contain discussions of child abuse, sexual assault, and rape. If that's not for you, we totally get it. We'll catch you on the next one. Australia's criminal legal system is built on a fundamental idea that you are innocent until proven guilty.
That means when someone is accused of a crime, it's the prosecution's job to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. And they typically use evidence like DNA, CCTV, eyewitness accounts, expert testimony and so on to do that.
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Chapter 6: Why did New South Wales change its laws regarding character references?
If the accused is found guilty by either a judge or jury, the case moves to sentencing. That's always the job of a judge and they'll look at the maximum penalty for the crime and work out where this particular offender sits on that scale before deciding whether they should, for example, pay a fine, complete community service or spend time behind bars.
What pushes a sentence higher tends to be the use of violence, premeditation and offending against children. What can bring it down is things like pleading guilty early, showing remorse or cooperating with police. Judges can also consider things like victim impact statements and character references.
Now, character references are written testimonials from people vouching for the convicted person's good character. You might remember former Prime Minister John Howard wrote one for Cardinal George Pell ahead of his sentencing in 2019. Multiple were also submitted during the sentencing of one of Australia's worst child sex offenders, childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith.
Now that's something a campaign led by survivors of child sexual abuse have been working for years to have banned when sentencing child sex offenders specifically. And earlier this month, they were handed a massive win in one state. Harrison James is one of those survivors and he joins me now. Harrison, welcome back to The Briefing.
Talk me through the Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign and your latest milestone.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on today, Chris. The Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign has been working with attorneys general across the country and we've seen the law pass or be announced and set to pass in four jurisdictions. So New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT. The Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign passed the New South Wales Parliament and
it really is a win for victims and survivors of sexual violence. And essentially what's been abolished is the provision of good character references in sexual violence cases. So essentially if someone is convicted in a court of law in New South Wales, of either child sexual abuse or rape or any other act of sexual violence.
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Chapter 7: How do survivors feel about the changes in the legal system?
They cannot present a reference from their friends, family, colleagues or anything like that that attests to their so-called good character. I've sat in courts before with victim survivors and have had to hear, as a survivor of child sexual abuse and the person who lived through that trauma, had to hear their perpetrator being lauded as a champion of young people
And it's so disheartening to hear things like that. And it's a gaslight of victims and survivors and the pain that they've gone through. And, you know, four years ago, this was just a conversation between survivors, but now it's law in New South Wales. And it honestly feels surreal to say that out loud.
And that's what the campaign was striving to do because we think there should be absolutely no opportunity for a convicted child sex offender or a rapist to have those good attributes presented to a court.
And there's a myriad of other things that a judge can take into account as well, things like prospects of rehabilitation, whether they plead guilty or not, so that there is factors where the judge is still able to see the whole person that they are sentencing in front of them, but also...
It creates a more trauma-informed system for victim survivors who don't have to sit in court and hear their perpetrator lauded as that. And, you know, the campaign and us as survivors, we have held up a mirror to the country and asked... When we are confronted with horrific violence, why is it that we reach for language that wants to soften it?
You know, why are we calling child sex offenders champions of young people? Why are rapists being described as top blokes? You know, and we see it in the media as well, and it's usually framed as a fall from grace. And that language matters and we shouldn't be tolerating that. And character references were not this harmless practice.
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Chapter 8: What are the future implications of these legal changes across Australia?
They were actively re-traumatising survivors in courtrooms across the country. That's why New South Wales matters and that's why it sets a precedent for the rest of the country to follow suit.
I mentioned in my introduction a few high profile examples that our listeners will understand and to pinpoint just what this looks like. But I guess for yourself and for the victim survivors you work with, who are the people that are writing character references? Just in general, some examples just to paint a bit of a picture here.
Well, the thing that is so poignant with the way that child sex offending and rape, for example, the thing that these perpetrators implement is tactics of grooming, and they manipulate not just the victim but the entire community around them into thinking that they are this good person.
So there are people who are, you know, friends, family, colleagues, you know, just everyday people who are writing these references.
And child sex offenders specifically, because I've lived through that pain and that trauma, they are experts at cultivating this perception that they are good and wholehearted and, you know, they give communities permission to minimise abuse and doubt survivors with their tactics. And that is why good character references specifically are they should never be utilised as a mitigating factor.
They're, in fact, further evidence as to why these perpetrators got away with the abuse and got away with facilitating the crime.
Initially, the New South Wales government was looking to abolish character references for all crimes, not just limited to sexual offences. Your campaign is centred on sexual offences. The Greens and Libs have... Well, they pushed back on that and then eventually what passed was a watered-down law. That... Law is a win for you. You characterize it as a win.
What do you make of the law that eventually did pass?
What passed is what the Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign initially set out to achieve, and we've won that and we passed that. So that's why I characterise it as a win, because for us it is, and for other victim survivors of sexual violence it is.
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