What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

Strengthen the penalties for arson.

Why this policy is needed
Fire causes enormous damage to property and loss of life.  Many destructive fires are deliberately lit.

According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, half of all vegetation fires – between 20,000 to 30,000 fires each year – are deliberately lit.

The community expects persons found guilty of arson to face the full force of the law, and that penalties reflect the seriousness of the offence. We believe that current laws relating to arson should better reflect community expectations.

And that includes a higher penalty where a person deliberately lights a fire during a day of total fire ban.

There must be a strong deterrent message that this behaviour is intolerable.

In government, we would refer the penalties relating to arson to the Sentencing Advisory Council.

We believe that consideration should be given to a crime of aggravated arson, where a person has deliberately lit a fire during a total fire ban.

We also believe that consideration should be given to strengthening the law in regard to persons found attempting to light a fire during a total fire ban and possessing items such as accelerant without lawful excuse.