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.”