TOUGHER bail conditions are set to be imposed on offenders as part of sweeping changes proposed by the state government, but some experts have warned that marginalised communities may be unfairly affected.
The state government introduced its bail reform to Parliament last week. It is seeking to amend the Bail Act to remove the principle of “remand as last resort” for youths, and introduce bail offences. The state government plans to introduce “commit an indictable offence while on bail for an indictable offence” into the Bail Act, and make the offence “breach of condition of bail” a summary offence. They will be punishable by up to three months imprisonment. The Bill also toughens bail tests for multiple serious offences, including armed robbery, aggravated burglary, home invasion, and carjacking.
Premier Jacinta Allan said that the reforms will be “fast-tracked” in response to growing crime levels state wide. “Under my government, bail is getting tougher because community safety comes first,” she said. Victorian Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said “this Bill is all about protecting Victorians from the most serious kind of repeat offending. We have fast-tracked a number of changes so they will start straight away once the Bill is proclaimed.”
In the 2023/2024 financial year, the number of offences recorded in the Frankston municipality increased by more than 19 percent from the year prior. In the Mornington Peninsula Shire municipality total offences recorded increased by more than 22 percent in the year ending June 2024, however in the Kingston LGA total offences recorded dropped by 1.6 percent (“Crime statistics skyrocket” The News 8/10/2024).
The proposed changes to the justice system have faced some criticism. Peninsula Community Legal Centre, a free legal service for people in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula, has signed an open letter calling the changes a “knee-jerk” response. The letter has been signed by nearly 100 representatives from Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, community services, and the family violence and legal sectors. The letter asks that the state government not amend bail laws until a full statutory review can take place in 2026.
The letter calls for ten measures to be considered, including “immediately make further investment in therapeutic bail support options which will improve community safety, do not reinstate double uplift to ensure people are not locked up on remand for offences unlikely to result in imprisonment, exclude non-violent and summary offences from any legislative changes that further restrict access to bail, expand the jurisdiction of the Koori Court to hear bail applications, and ensure any amendments to existing bail laws do not prevent children and young people from accessing therapeutic and rehabilitative supports within the community.”
A statement from the Peninsula Community Legal Centre read that it “stands with Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and our CLC colleagues condemning the proposed changes to bail reform.” Federation of Community Legal Centres CEO Louisa Gibbs said “the bail reforms that came into effect less than a year ago were evidence-based and the product of many months of consultation with legal experts, communities, and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations. The decision to overhaul these considered laws in a rushed response to a scare campaign will only exacerbate issues of rising crime.”
“The situation is not as simple as saying that locking people up will provide greater community safety. The data shows that keeping people in prison on remand increases the likelihood of them committing further crimes, and that any time spent in prison is the number one risk factor for re-offending and being incarcerated in the future. It’s time to focus on putting services and systems in place that prevent people from offending in the first place, rather than creating pathways to further offending through incarceration,” Gibbs said.
“Victoria’s community legal centres oppose changes to the bail laws that will disproportionately impact Aboriginal people, and support the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service in their powerful advocacy to keep all of our communities safe.”
First published in the Mornington News – 25 March 2025
