appeal against sentence — importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug offence contrary to s 307.1(1) of Commonwealth Criminal Code — offence related to 787g of pure methamphetamine — one other offence taken into account pursuant to s 16BA — original sentence imposed 6 years’ and 9 months imprisonment with 3 year and 9 month non-parole period — guilty plea — s 16A(2)(g) — sentencing judge did not refer to s 16A(2)(g) or specifically refer to offender’s early plea of guilty or to any mitigation of sentence to take account that plea — failure to expressly refer to plea and any discount on sentence allowed to reflect its value to justice system does not necessarily demonstrate failure to take plea into account — clear from sentencing proceedings that sentencing judge aware that applicant had acknowledged guilt at early stage and entered guilty plea to principal offence — equally clear that sentencing judge understood that full recognition of benefit to criminal justice system of early plea should be extended to offender — always preferable for sentencing judge to specifically refer to early plea and quantify discount on sentence, failure to do so does not necessarily establish error — manifest excess — starting point for considering whether sentence is manifestly excessive is the maximum penalty specified for the offence; here, life imprisonment — indicator of how seriously community regards importation of controlled drugs, and seriousness with which courts are obliged to treat such crimes — sentencing judge’s task was to have regard to that statutory guidepost and relevant principles of sentencing law, to take into account the offence on a schedule before the court, to give weight to offender’s personal circumstances, and arrive at sentence that did justice to community and offender — that is a discretionary exercise — sentencing judge allowed offender benefit of all positive features of subjective case and varied ratio of sentence considerably in offender’s favour — sentence imposed was a modest one — leave to appeal granted — appeal dismissed
