Allan’s cartoonishly titled bail bill reveals the depths of bad government

When Victoria had a good government, it took seriously the responsibility it had towards children in the justice system.

In 2015, as an Andrews government full of purpose was nearing the end of its first year in power, it introduced changes to the Bail Act intended to address a growing problem – the number of young children and, particularly, Aboriginal children behind bars.

Police Minister Anthony Carbines, Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny announce changes to Victoria’s bail laws.Credit: AAP

As then attorney-general Martin Pakula told parliament, remanding children should be a last resort. “Victoria does not want children to become entrenched in the criminal justice system,” he said.

The changes codified a long-held principle that locking up kids is bad for them and bad for the rest of us, as it is a proven means of fast-tracking them to a future of more serious adult offending.

Under a new section added to the Bail Act which came into force in 2016, courts were required to “consider all other options before remanding [a] child in custody”.

In 2023, in the last changes to bail laws made before Daniel Andrews quit as premier, this section of the Bail Act was expanded and the need to keep children out of jail made more explicit. It further required courts to “impose on the child the minimum intervention required in the circumstances, with the remand of the child being as a last resort”.

This is the principle a bad government has decided to scrap, as early as next week, with its cartoonishly titled “Tough Bail Bill”.

Like Pakula a decade ago, Premier Jacinta Allan and her “Tough Bail” deputies, Police Minister Anthony Carbines and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny, are trying to fix a serious problem.

A group of hardcore, recidivist young criminals is invading homes, stealing cars and traumatising families across Melbourne and in some of our regional centres. Too often, they are caught, charged, bailed and released to offend again.

It is a destructive cycle that frustrates police, makes people feel unsafe in their homes and leads to the sort of tabloid outrage the Herald Sun has channelled towards an unpopular state government with potent effect.

Crime statistics tell part of the story but as Kilkenny reflected on Wednesday, it is only when you sit down and listen to the victims of these crimes – as she has done in recent weeks – that the full, heartbreaking impact becomes clear.

She described meeting one woman whose family had been terrorised by gang of young criminals in her home. “She looked at me and said the people who did this were out on bail. How did this happen? And I didn’t have an answer for her.”

Allan said the current bail laws are failing to stop this pattern of offending and failing to meet community expectations. “It is unacceptable to see these repeat home invasions,” she said. “It is unacceptable to have families traumatised in the way that they have been.”

She said the government had “got it wrong” with the 2023 law changes that made it more difficult for judges and magistrates to lock up young offenders.

This is not the first time Allan or one of her deputies has offered a mea culpa about bail.

In 2023, it was a contrite Carbines who told parliament the government’s tightening of bail laws in 2018 got it terribly wrong.

These were changes that resulted in a trebling of the number of people in Victoria on remand, overcrowding of our jails, and the death of Veronica Nelson, an Aboriginal woman who died in custody while on remand for a series of minor offences.

“We know that the changes we made have had a disproportionate impact on people who were already experiencing significant disadvantage, with a particular impact on Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, children and women,” Carbines said.

On Wednesday, Carbines struck a very different tone. He said he made no excuses nor apologies for legislation intended to lock up more young people. “In any changes to the law, on any given day, there are risks for vulnerable people,” he said.

What are the risks of these law changes?

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, which represented the family of Veronica Nelson during a coronial inquest into her death, said the proposed reform package, which again makes it offence to commit an indictable offence while on bail, would result in more Aboriginal people and especially more Aboriginal women going to jail.

The Federation of Legal Centres, the Les Twentyman Foundation, the Australian Lawyers Alliance and the Justice Reform Initiative warned that the changes would entrench more children in the criminal justice system, increase re-offending and leave communities less safe.

These groups also made it clear that none of them had been consulted about legislation they variously described as kneejerk and a backwards step.

Good governments don’t do this.

In 2023, before Victoria changed the bail laws in response to the damning coronial inquest into Nelson’s death, the government consulted at length with legal experts and more broadly with the community.

This is the fifth time in 10 years the Victorian government has considered substantial changes to the Bail Act.

It is the first time it has done so with such reckless haste.

Liberty Victoria senior vice-president Sam Norton, a solicitor who has spent his entire career working in the criminal justice system, pointed out that the government’s press release announcing the changes used the words “tough” or “toughest” 32 times.

“The naked politicisation of this is overwhelming,” Norton said.

“What I would like to see is for them to take a deep breath, consult with the various bodies that have contributed to law reform over a long period of time and make decisions based on what is going to achieve the best outcomes.”

It is what a good government would do.

Chip Le Grand is state political editor.

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