The New South Wales government has introduced chemical castration as a parole option for sex offenders, and the state’s police minister would like to go even further.

The state government said today that convicted sex offenders would be able to volunteer to take libido-suppressing drugs as part of their parole, the ABC reported. It was part of a series of changes designed to make the court system move more quickly and improve sentencing options.

“If I had my way, I’d take their nuts off, on the record, but this is the appropriate way,”  Police Minister Tony Grant said, adding that the new measures were “a step in the right direction to ensure that the kids in our community will be safe from those predators into the future, pending their release”.

What was apparently an intake of breath and some laughs can be heard after the comment about “nuts” on an ABC video of Grant speaking at a press conference on the measures.

NSW has also introduced a ‘no body, no parole’ policy that would allow the Parole Authority to deny release for murderers if the victim’s body had not been found. 

But Greens MP David Shoebridge told the ABC that his party would review the legislation, saying that sex offenders would not be truly voluntarily choosing chemical castration if the only other option was to “rot in jail for the rest of your natural life”.

What do you think of the new laws? Is David Shoebridge right to think the law is unfair, or would you like to see even tougher laws?