Victorian Government Considers Backtracking on Dumped Bail Laws

The law change will not reduce crime, but will reduce people’s access to justice, the Australia Lawyers Alliance and the Aboriginal Legal Service say.

Overreliance on prisons in Australia is failing to reduce crime rates, reform prisoners and prevent reoffending, and at an increasing cost to taxpayers. rawf8/Shutterstock

Victoria’s Police Minister Anthony Carbines is considering reintroducing bail offences scrapped by the government in 2023, but is facing opposition from groups representing the legal profession.

The original changes came about after a coroner inquiring into the death in custody of Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson called the state’s bail laws a “complete, unmitigated disaster.”

Nelson died in January 2020, having been refused bail for ship theft offences in 2019.

Coroner Simon McGregor said the Bail Act at the time had a “discriminatory impact on First Nations people, resulting in grossly disproportionate rates of [them] remanded in custody, the most egregious of which affects alleged offenders who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander women.”

Carbines said he shared that view in 2023 when the government repealed the offences of breaching bail conditions and committing further offences while on bail.

He told Parliament they had “a disproportionate impact on women, Aboriginal people and people experiencing disadvantage” and expressed his “profound and deepest sympathies” to Nelson’s family.

Now, only six months after the new laws were passed, he has changed his mind, telling reporters that “everything is on the table” to deal with a “merry-go-round” of criminals who continued to reoffend after being granted bail.

“We need to deal with those people who don’t respect the courts and don’t respect the opportunities they get and their freedom,” he told reporters.

With the Werribee by-election this weekend, and polls showing crime is a major concern for voters in the area, the government is scrambling to shore up its vote. The seat is no longer safe for Labor, as the vote count so far has both Labor and Liberal candidates in a tight race.

In the 2022 state election, former Treasurer Tim Pallas had won with a near 11 percent margin. The Liberal candidate campaigned on reducing crime as a top priority and the razor-thin voting gap illustrates the significance of the issue for residents.

According to the state’s crime statistics agency, criminal incidents in the Wyndham region—which largely mirrors the boundaries of the Werribee electorate—rose by 13.3 percent in the year to September 2024.

Across the wider state, crime by children was at its highest level in 15 years, up 17 percent in the previous 12 months. Domestic violence offences were also at a record high in September last year, up 10.4 percent.

Bail Laws Under Review

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan addresses the media during a press conference in Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 29, 2020. AAP Image/James Ross

Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed at a press conference that she has instructed the Attorney General, Sonya Kilkenny, and Carbines to review the laws to “respond to what we’re hearing from the community.”

However, the Australian Lawyers Alliance says the move is ill-conceived, as the effects of the new laws have yet to be tested, and accused the government of “putting politics ahead of sensible and considered law reform.”

“Keeping more people in prison on remand will not improve community safety and is a slap in the face to the people who worked so hard to positively reform bail laws after the tragic death of Veronica Nelson,” said the group’s spokesperson, Greg Barns SC.

“We know that tightening bail laws will more deeply entrench the horrific levels of disadvantage amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are disproportionately affected by harsh bail laws.

“More people on remand also leads to more pressure in custodial settings, on police and the court system. The Victorian government should instead be looking hard at what is causing offending and investing more in support programs to minimise re-offending,” Barns said.

Indigenous Organisations Opposed

Victoria’s Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) also condemned the proposal, saying it was particularly dangerous for children. CEO Karly Warner took to Facebook to say the organisation was “devastated” by what it called “knee-jerk actions.”

“It’s also a huge betrayal of Aboriginal communities and goes against everything the government has promised under Closing the Gap,” she said, promising the organisation would “continue to fight against this blatant political stunt.”

The state’s First Peoples’ Assembly is also opposed. Co-chair Rueben Berg said the review was premature.

“The laws were only just passed by Parliament. It’s hard not to question the underlying political motivations driving this decision,” he said.

“We’ve seen the damage knee-jerk reactions to bail reform can have to our community. We cannot forget that it was [the] death of Veronica Nelson, an Aboriginal woman in custody, that prompted the recent reforms in the first place.

“Bail reform was a key focus of recommendations from the Yoorrook Justice Commission who heard extensive evidence about the disproportionate impact the laws are having on First Peoples in Victoria,” Berg said. “Any attempt to walk back from those latest reforms would fly in the face of this testimony.”