An ACT Legislative Assembly committee has strengthened proposed sentencing laws by listening to expert evidence and improving the legislation.

We’re in a world where the lone superpower (at least for most of the past three decades) is being eclipsed, with an erratic and irrational president bypassing the legislative authority of Congress with deadly effect in matters military and budgetary.

We’re in a country where a supposedly reforming second-term government with a thumping majority is widely seen as glacial at best in its legislative approach, and the Opposition as ineffectual, at least at those moments when it’s not hopelessly divided.

So, it’s heartening to live in a jurisdiction where, at least in one current instance, a parliament seems to be actually working, in the interests of all sections of the community, and, one hopes, with enough firepower to lead a government to alter course.

It’s not the most earth-shattering matter, but the progress of the Magistrates Court (Indicative Sentencing) Amendment Bill 2025 through the ACT Legislative Assembly’s Legal Affairs committee is an example of how well a parliamentary system can function, at least so far.

Indicative sentencing allows a defendant to request an indication of the likely sentence to be imposed if they were to plead guilty. The ACT Government’s aim is to reduce the number of people on bail by........

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