Mr Walsh said the Denyers, Julian Knights and Craig Minogues of the world had committed crimes “so absolutely atrocious” they did not deserve to be released from jail.
Particularly when they never showed any remorse, not at their arrests, their trials, or during their incarcerations, he said.
“It is just incomprehensible to me, and to any right-minded person, that these people could be released from jail at any time in the foreseeable future, if ever,” Mr Walsh told parliament on Thursday.
“This bill (the Corrections Amendment (Parole Reform) Bill 2023), as I understand it, gives the parole board the power to effectively keep someone in jail forever, and that is very, very important here because people who commit these heinous crimes just do not deserve to be out in society.
“This finally puts Denyer in the same category as Knight (convicted of seven murders) and Minogue (convicted of the Russell St bombing), as I mentioned before, with the years he will spend in jail into the future.”
In 1993, Denyer was sentenced to three life sentences without parole for the murders of Elizabeth Stevens, Debbie Fream and Natalie Russell until he successfully challenged the term and was granted a 30-year non-parole period on appeal in 1994.
Sentencing judge Frank Vincent described Denyer’s extraordinary savagery as “almost beyond comprehension”.
Mr Walsh said it was sad we had criminals like that in our state who would deliberately go out and cause harm.
He said for most it was incomprehensible someone would do that, but “more incomprehensible — unless you are family of those victims — is what you would go through when this happens”.
“That is what this bill is about: delivering justice, or as much justice as can be delivered, to these shattered, grieving families, who have been given a life sentence with absolutely no chance of parole,” Mr Walsh said.
“At the same time, this bill is proof positive the system works, even though it has been too long in coming, for which I believe all of us here in Parliament owe the families of Denyer’s victims an apology for that delay.
“I would like to do that on behalf of The Nationals and sincerely say: we have finally got here, and we are glad we are.”
Mr Walsh said if anyone doubted the role and influence of Opposition, they should look at the work of the Liberal Members for Berwick (Brad Battin) and Mornington (Chris Crewther) to keep pushing this issue along.
“His Majesty’s loyal oppositions are there to hold the government of the day to account, and when that government is not doing the job on behalf of Victorians, the Opposition is there to continue to push — as in the case of pushing for this, initially through a private member’s bill — to just keep the pressure on and make sure things come to the fore,” Mr Walsh said.
He said he hoped the proposed bill would bring closure for families and they would not be traumatised again by reliving the events they suffered through so many years ago
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