Serial killers or mass murderers as bad as Catherine Birnie will never be released in Western Australia, the premier says, labelling the opposition's promise to end parole reviews for her ilk redundant.
Shadow attorney-general John Quigley says if Labor is elected next month, the party will change laws so criminals as heinous as Birnie are not automatically considered for release every three years.
Under the existing system, once a criminal has served a certain amount of time, the Parole Board makes a recommendation about whether to free them, but the decision is up to the attorney general.
Premier Colin Barnett told reporters on Thursday his government - or any other government for that matter - would never release a mass murderer or serial killer of Birnie's calibre.
"That would never happen and it hasn't happened," he told reporters.
"So what is John Quigley going to do? Is he going to legislate for life sentences for individuals? I don't think so.
"Is he going to abandon the parole system? I don't know."
Calls to stop reviewing Birnie's parole have come from Kate Moir, who was raped by Birnie's partner David but escaped from the twisted couple's clutches after they raped and murdered four women in 1986.
Ms Moir says the nightmare comes back every time she reads about the board's deliberations.
In the recently-aired Seven Network program Murder Uncovered, Ms Moir was reunited with the policewoman who ensured her report about her harrowing ordeal was followed up - ending the killing spree.
An explosive claim in the show was that David Birnie alluded to killing three more women - believed to be Barbara Western, Lisa Mott and Cheryl Renwick - between 1980 and 1986.
But he hanged himself in his protective custody Casuarina Prison cell in 2005 before making a confession.
Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan was asked about the claim the day after the show was broadcast, responding he couldn't comment on specific cases, only saying the Special Crime Squad continued to investigate long-term unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.
Birnie, 65, is the head librarian at Bandyup Prison in Perth's northeast and was denied parole 11 months ago, so her next review will be in 2019.
Mr Barnett said she could not be excluded from parole consideration "because that would be a revised sentence".
"The courts make the sentences, not politicians," he said.
"In terms of stress to victims, you could make some administrative changes around that.
"But parole is part of trying to provide some incentive ... to behave, to reform, to take rehabilitation, to not be drug affected and the like."
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