Sorry, mandatory what?

Aside from the fact it is almost impossible to find a hard toothbrush any more (seriously, what kind of gum disease-loving pussy PREFERS a soft brush over a hard one?) something that has really ground my gears today is this mandatory sentencing thing.
I have a problem with it. I'm not convinced that serving a compulsory prison sentence because you have somehow injured a police officer is the best outcome we can produce, nor is it the best for our system of justice.
Yes that footage of officer Butcher hitting the ground is sickening and the sound of his head popping on the pavement turned my guts inside out too, but this is the justice system, law, we are talking about. McLeods' lawyer Michael Tudori is clearly a brilliant solicitor, being able to get such a thuggish family who brutally attacked an officer of the law off scot free (see what I did there?). But that's just it. He did his job better than the prosecutor. Case closed.
What worries me is the MANDATORY part of mandatory sentencing. This legislation needs to be analysed very closely indeed before it passed by Parliament. How could it be exploited? Abused? I mean really, you think a dodgy cop or transit guard won't take advantage of these laws where they can?
If an officer smacks me 40 times across the head and I hit back once, is that still self-defence? Or am I going to prison?
The evidence would have to really freakin watertight to COMPULSORILY sentence someone to a term in prison for assaulting a public officer.
I look forward to seeing the detail of Jim McGinty's proposed amendment tomorrow, which would, as I understand it, make the mandatory sentencing discretionary.
That's right folks, discretionary mandatory sentencing.
Too much time bonging on in Freo, methinks.
However, some kind of amendment is the best hope for a fairer law which balances the desire to offer greater protection to Old Bill but doesn't take away our rights as citizens. Rights given to us in Magna Carta, Opus Prime, Optimus Prime, Opus Dei... Oh fuck it, I forget where it's written... you know what I mean.