Victorian mass killer Julian Knight will spend the rest of his life in jail after the High Court found retrospective laws to keep him locked up did not breach the constitution.
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The Hoddle Street shooter is serving a life sentence, with a non-parole period of 27 years, for killing seven and injuring 19 during a 1987 shooting rampage in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill.
Knight had been eligible for parole in 2014 until the Napthine Government rushed through legislation severely restricting the circumstances in which the Adult Parole Board can grant the convicted killer release.
Under the tough new laws, Knight must stay behind bars until he is dead or so incapacitated he is no longer a risk to the community.
But Knight challenged the laws in the High Court, arguing the amendments had been unconstitutional as it had been contrary to Chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution.
He said the legislation to keep him behind bars interfered with the sentences imposed by the Supreme Court, and meant judicial officers on the parole board engaged in roles that were incompatible with the exercise of federal jurisdiction by the courts.
The full bench of the court knocked back both arguments in a decision on Thursday.
"The first argument fails because neither in its legal form nor in its substantial practical operation does the section interfere with the sentences imposed by the Supreme Court.
"The second argument fails because the Board has not in fact been constituted, and does not need to be constituted, to include a judicial officer for the purpose of performing the function conferred by the section.
"Whether the function conferred by the section would be repugnant to or incompatible with the exercise of federal jurisdiction by the court of which a judicial officer is a member is not appropriate for determination."
Knight was ordered to pay costs.
He has previously attempted to get around the laws after failed attempts to transfer to Canberra jail.
Knight had asked for charges against him- in relation to the stabbing of a fellow Duntroon staff cadet at a Canberra nightclub less than three months before the deadly rampage - be reinstated.
The former Duntroon staff cadet pledged to plead guilty to the charges provided he was extradited from Victoria to the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
Once in Canberra, he could then reapply for parole free of the Victorian legislation.
Knight, who was last year declared a vexatious litigant for life in Victoria, has launched a wave of lawsuits that included failed bids to secure victim compensation from the ACT government and the Commonwealth.
