# Victoria to impose life sentences for rape

> Premier Ben Carroll announces sweeping reforms to tackle violence against women, including life imprisonment for rapists and restrictions on victim cross-examination.
- Title: Victoria to impose life sentences for rape · the Guardian
- Summary: Premier Ben Carroll announces sweeping reforms to tackle violence against women, including life imprisonment for rapists and restrictions on victim…
- Keywords: ben carroll, victoria, labor party, rape sentencing, family violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, criminal law reform, news, world, impose, life
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/20/victorian-labor-promises-new-offences-to-close-domestic-and-family-violence-loopholes-ntwnfb
- Published: 2026-09-20T05:26:48+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ben carroll, victoria, labor party, rape sentencing, family violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, criminal law reform, news, world
## Carroll announces rape law overhaul
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll pledges to increase the maximum penalty for rape from twenty five years to life imprisonment if Labor wins re-election.
## New manslaughter offence for family violence
Labor will create a new manslaughter charge covering cases where a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, closing what the government calls loopholes.
## Abandonment of injured victims to be criminalised
A new offence will criminalise perpetrators who abandon family violence victims needing medical care, responding to coroner recommendations after two deaths.
## Belinda Jones left to die on her floor
Belinda Jones, forty, died in July twenty twenty three after her partner left her overnight then waited two hours to call an ambulance.
## Coroner condemns abandonment as control
State Coroner Liberty Sanger ruled that abandoning a family violence victim in need of medical care is itself an act of family violence that affirms perpetrator control.

> the act of abandoning a victim of family violence requiring medical attention is an act of family violence, that instils fear in the victim and affirms a perpetrator's control over the victim.
## Restrictions on victim cross-examination
Labor will prevent barristers from using humiliating and invasive questioning techniques against victim-survivors and allow courts to consider patterns of sexual abuse as evidence.

> I'm sick of Victoria's courts and defence barristers putting victims on trial.
## Violence kills a woman every two weeks
Carroll says Victoria must act on family and sexual violence, which kills a Victorian woman every two weeks. The reforms come ahead of November's election.

> We must act on the violence that is killing a Victorian woman every two weeks.
## Key takeaway

Victorian Labor commits to life sentences for rape, new manslaughter offences for family violence deaths, and limits on aggressive cross-examination of victims.