By Bridget Vallence
Victoria is in a crime crisis.
Youth crime in late 2024 had risen to the highest level since 2009 with 23,810 incidents – up a staggering 16.9 per cent year on year.
Last year, Victorian youths breached bail 2770 times – the equivalent of once every three hours!
Every day, more serious crimes are being committed by young offenders while on bail, making people feel unsafe.
The Allan Labor Government made a grave error when it weakened bail laws.
It let down Victorians’ safety and left our community exposed.
By weakening bail laws in Victoria in 2024, Labor made it harder for courts to revoke bail for repeat serious offenders, creating the perverse effect of allowing offenders who repeatedly commit certain serious offences to repeatedly be granted bail without facing a tougher test.
Now we see a continuous cycle of catch-release-catch-release for serious offences, with some offenders having been granted bail an astonishing 50 or more times!
With crime spiralling in Victoria and offenders on bail wielding machetes in shopping precincts, committing aggravated burglaries in people’s homes, or joy riding in stolen cars for social media ‘likes’, Labor finally conceded there was a problem.
Their solution? A review!
This simply doesn’t pass the pub test.
Victoria does not need another review, a quasi review or sham review.
The community and police have had enough.
Unequivocally, Victoria’s bail laws should be strengthened without delay.
It’s why in Parliament last week, the Victorian Liberal Opposition introduced a bill to amend the Bail Act to do exactly that – we wanted to work constructively with the government to immediately toughen bail laws. In fact, it’s the second time in six months we’ve introduced this bill seeking to re-enact what Labor had repealed, including offences of contravening bail conditions and of committing indictable offences whilst on bail.
Bail is a privilege, not a right, and those who abuse that privilege by breaching their conditions should be held accountable.
The law should reflect that very basic principle.
Serious offenders caught re-offending on bail should not be able to simply get bail again.
An indictable offence committed whilst on bail should be an offence itself, and more importantly should lead to a tougher test for that person to obtain bail again.
Sadly, for Labor it is politics over people and Premier Allan and her Labor Government voted down our commonsense proposal to strengthen bail laws.
Instead of grasping the opportunity to constructively improve community safety and reduce people suffering harm from crime, Labor failed its duty of care to Victorians.
