Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019

The same number of senators voted for and against a motion that schedule 6 stand as printed, which means the motion failed. In other words, schedule 6 - which dealt with mandatory minimum sentences - was not supported by the majority in the Senate.

This motion was put after Queensland Senator Murray Watt (Labor) introduced a motion to oppose the schedule.

What are mandatory minimum sentences?

The bills digest explains that "[m]andatory sentencing laws specify a minimum penalty or a fixed penalty that a judge must impose in relation to a particular offence or type of offender (for example a repeat offender)." There is a lot of debate about the effectiveness of mandatory sentences - see the bills digest for more discussion.