It is also imposed, albeit rarely, for sexual assault, manufacturing and trafficking commercial quantities of illicit drugs, and offences against the justice system and government security.
In South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the minimum non-parole period for a life sentence for an offender convicted of murder is 20 years.
[8] New South Wales is the only Australian state or territory to provide for a mandatory life without parole sentence, specifically where the offender has been convicted of the murder of a police officer.
In Queensland, if child sexual abuse was committed by a repeat offender, a life sentence is mandatory and cannot be mitigated or varied under any law.
Other offences capable of attracting a sentence of life imprisonment are rape, arson, incest, riot (under aggravated circumstances), piracy and destroying sea walls (Queensland) and treason (Tasmania).
Sixty three such offences are within the Criminal Code Act 1995,[18] including the setting or placing of explosive and lethal devices; treason, treachery and espionage offences; terrorist acts, as well as preparing or planning terrorist acts and financing terrorism; incursions into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activity and related preparatory conduct (including accumulating weapons, providing or participating in training, giving or receiving goods and services and allowing use of buildings and vehicles to support such offences).
The longest non-parole period imposed for a single murder is 35 years, being served by Melbourne CBD gunman Christopher Wayne Hudson (Victoria).
[21] The longest non-parole period imposed on a woman is 32 years, being served by South Australian Angelika Gavare, who murdered and dismembered pensioner Vonne McGlynn in November 2008 for financial gain,[22] and Victorian Cai Xia Liao, who repeatedly stabbed Mai Mach and her four-year-old grandson Alistair Kwong with gardening shears in a vicious attack.