Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Bail laws

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:23): (1430) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is to end the politicisation of bail laws and for any review of bail laws to be evidence based. Earlier this month the Premier announced that she had instructed the Attorney-General and the Minister for Police to review Victoria’s bail laws. What this review would include is unclear, but the Premier shared a belief that there was a need to go further.

One of the most recent changes to tighten our bail laws only came into effect in December. To review these changes so soon is perplexing to say the least. It is fair to say that this government is constantly tinkering with bail laws. Often this tinkering results in perverse outcomes like, for instance, the doubling of the rate of Indigenous female imprisonment. Addressing these perverse outcomes requires tinkering with laws yet again, and we cannot rely on these changes to be made. This government dumped plans to improve the bail system for young people, and it dumped its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

In the context of the Werribee by-election it was not surprising that some suggested the announcement of a review into bail laws was a political choice. I implore this government not to be tempted by a tough-on-crime approach that seems to have all the answers but actually leaves us worse off. Motivators of crime are complex, as are the ways to address them. We need to be directing our attention to things like the drop in high school attendance to an all-time low, the substantial increase in family violence incidents, the increased wait times for mental health support and the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis. We want to be clear that people deserve to feel safe, and a lot of people are not feeling that way at the moment. But if we want to improve, we need to look at what is motivating people to commit crimes.

A tough-on-crime stance and responding with an unnecessary review of bail laws is lazy and ineffective, so I ask: will the Premier commit to ending the politicisation of bail laws and for any review of bail laws to be evidence based?