{"id":450584,"date":"2026-02-01T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450584\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T00:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T00:32:10","slug":"nsw-government-to-scrap-good-character-references-for-convicted-criminals-in-australia-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450584\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW government to scrap ‘good character’ references for convicted criminals in Australia first"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe NSW<\/a> government will abolish the use of good character references during sentencing hearings in all criminal trials.Proposed legislation will prevent convicted offenders from relying on evidence from character references in court<\/a> sentencing in a bid to reduce trauma for victims, following recommendations from the NSW Sentencing Council.<\/p>\n

Child sexual offenders are already prohibited from relying on “good character” or a lack of previous convictions if these factors “assisted the perpetrator to commit the offence” \u2013 known as the special rule.<\/p>\n

\"LawProposed legislation will stop convicted offenders from relying on evidence from character references in court in NSW. (iStock)<\/p>\n

Good character references will be scrapped for all convicted offenders \ufeffafter legislation to amend the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 is introduced to state parliement this week.<\/p>\n

Courts will still be able to consider evidence relating to factors including someone’s prospects of rehabilitation and the likelihood of reoffending.<\/p>\n

A lack of previous convictions will also be retained as a mitigating factor during sentencing.<\/p>\n

Your Reference Ain’t Relevant cofounders Harrison James and Jarad Grice both advocated for the sentencing reforms.<\/p>\n

James \u2013 a survivor of child sexual abuse \ufeff\u2013 described the proposed legislation as a “historic shift in justice”.<\/p>\n

\"NewNSW Attorney-General Michael Daley. (Sam Mooy)<\/p>\n

“This reform ensures survivors’ lived trauma outweighs an offenders’ social reputation, and I thank the attorney-general and NSW government for listening and acting on our campaign,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is one of the most monumental shifts in how the courts approach sentencing. After years of relentless advocacy, seeing it become reality is a dream come true.”<\/p>\n

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said convicted criminals will no longer be able to use their reputation to minimise culpability.<\/p>\n

“\ufeffVictim survivors shouldn’t have to sit in court and hear the person who hurt them or their loved one described as a ‘good person’,” Daley said.<\/p>\n

“No offender should be able to rely on the fact they are of ‘good character’ to mitigate the consequences of their criminal behaviour.”<\/p>\n

The NSW government is set to introduce the Australian-first legislation on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800. \ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\ufeffhe NSW government will abolish the use of good character references during sentencing hearings in all criminal trials.Proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-450584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}