The Clarence candidate for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, Steve Cansdell, is calling on the New South Wales Government to introduce mandatory sentencing for all serious violence perpetrated against emergency service workers. “We’ve had a nurse bashed, another one stabbed. We’ve had a policeman run over and another assaulted. These are not isolated incidents but becoming all too common right across the State. It goes on and on, it’s happening weekly. When’s it going to stop?” Asked Mr Cansdell. “When GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) is committed against the general public, that’s bad enough but when it’s committed against our emergency service workers while they are doing their job protecting the public, it’s completely unacceptable.” “We’ve had very real concerns raised from paramedics in the Grafton area and the Clarence electorate generally, for their personal safety. We need to do something now and force this Government to act before it’s too late.” Said Mr Cansdell. “They’re let off left, right and centre because they have limited responsibility because they’re drunk, because they’re on ice or they were given a hard time as a kid. You’ve got to take responsibility for your own actions.” “This is a soft government, afraid to put in mandatory sentencing even if it’s to protect our emergency service workers. No more excuses.” Said Mr Cansdell. “The NSW Government has already set a precedent on mandatory sentencing with the one punch laws. If they can do it for one punch thugs, then they can do it to protect our emergency service workers and volunteers. Our nurses, our paramedics our police our firies our SES our RFS all of our emergency service workers need protecting.” “Victoria has protective legislation for their emergency service workers with mandatory sentencing and they are toughening it up now, they are amending the legislation so that it is harder to get out of the mandatory sentencing. It’s time NSW followed their lead. We need to protect our hard-working emergency service workers.” “I’ll be pushing our guys to raise this issue in Parliament in the near future. We need to put pressure on this Government to get off their back sides and get this done.” Said Mr Cansdell.