Bill: Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025

BILL:

BAIL FURTHER AMENDMENT BILL 2025.

Tuesday, 13 August 2025.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (15:44):

I rise to speak on the Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025.

We are here again because this Government is trying after failing, after weakening our State’s laws when it comes to bail, when it comes to making sure people on our streets and in their homes are safe. They are not safe. We know that. We know it because not only are Victorians feeling it with these crimes but even the Government has been brought to the point of acknowledging it, although not acknowledging it in a way that they can work out how to fix it. They certainly do not know how to fix it, but they have acknowledged it.

I remember the day when the now Treasurer, then Attorney-General, said there was no youth crime crisis, that it was not happening. I remember when former Premier Andrews stood up and said that people in my community and I did not understand crime data, and now Victoria Police have confirmed the youth crime crisis started in Bayside – what a pig of a man he was.

We are here again today because we have the Government trying to solve a problem they created, and they do not know how to fix it. When it comes to bail, they have again tried to fix the bail revolving door, and we know that the worst crimes are being committed by people over and over again.

Not that long ago in my community there was a very serious home invasion, where the police did a fantastic job and later that same day caught the two crooks involved. They were caught in the middle of Church Street, Brighton, which shut down the street – a packed street – and the police arrested them, which was fantastic. But with the entire crowd watching, guess what the youth offender said to their mate as they were being arrested? ‘See you in a couple of hours when I get bailed,’ they shouted to their friend. What a disgrace – and Victorians know it. They know that these fixes are not actually doing what needs to be done, and that is shutting the bail door. That is what you need to do; you need to stop the revolving door.

The reason why there is a revolving door is because this Government is soft and sides with criminals. That is what they do, and we know they do, especially when
it comes to youth offenders, because they believe that people should not only be given a second chance but should be given a 20th chance, a 50th chance, a 100th chance, over the rights of the victims. That is why we have this problem in this State; it is by design. Consequences do not exist, because this Government believes in giving endless chances to people who are committing the worst crimes. The Government can have us here trying to solve the problem they created over and over again, and we know it will not fix it.

Can you imagine being such a limp-wristed Government that you bring a Bill in that supposedly deals with a very, very serious issue in the community and then not implement it for seven months? How could you possibly do that? How could you possibly say that it is going to take seven months before you are going to actually implement the laws that you say are necessary and needed now? It is not just on this Bill; we know it is the previous Bills and laws that the Government has brought into this place. We saw it with the post-and-boast laws, which were supposed to deal with people glorifying the crimes they commit – seven months to bring about those changes. How can you bring in an urgent Bill and say, ‘We’re going to put it away for seven months if it gets through the Parliament?’ What a disgrace. On machetes, you are seeing people going to a shopping centre – innocent people – and having their hand chopped off, and this Government announced a machete ban that they did not bring in for three months. On bail – seven months. Post and boast – seven months. It is just extraordinary. Machetes – three months. How can you possibly propose laws that deal with keeping people safe from the most violent crimes and delay them for months and months and months on end? You should be implementing them immediately, as we have tried to do. We have brought in our own proposed changes. We have sought to amend the Bills the Government tries to bring in, to bring them on more speedily. The Government does not want to bring them on. They do not want to bring these reforms in quickly, because they will always side with the criminal over the victim.

It is in their DNA. We have not talked about this: the most important bail reforms that are needed, which the Government promised they would bring in when the Premier admitted, finally, there might be a problem – and we have got the minister at the table, so he might be able to inform us – were going to be brought in later this year. The Premier said and the Government briefed it out to the media that those reforms would be in later this year. Well, guess what we found out this week? Those reforms will not be brought in until next year – of course they will not be. They have delayed not acting. Not only did they announce they were not going to act till later this year, they have now announced they are going to delay not acting – how completely hopeless.

If it only affected them, no-one would worry, but this affects community safety. This affects the lawlessness on our streets, not just in people’s homes, where we have seen the most violent crimes, but in my community, where police have said the youth crime crisis started. My community cares because we are the victims. It is what you see on the streets now every single week. You have a Government that promised to bring in face mask ban reforms to ensure that violent offenders who are protesting on the street cannot cover their faces so that no action can be taken against them. Where is that? There has been an eight-month delay on action there. It is eight months since it was promised – eight months – and we have seen no sign of it. All we will see is every Labor Member voting against proposed laws today which would have taken action on that. We have seen a seven-month delay on bail and a seven-month delay on post and boast. We have seen a three-month delay on machetes, and we have seen an eight-month delay and still no time of action on the face mask ban. And on the most-needed bail reforms we see a delay on a delay. How can you possibly imagine a Government announcing they will not act and then further announcing they are going to delay when they will not act? That is what has happened when it comes to bail.

This Government is an absolute disgrace when it comes to law and order. The most important thing is that the community knows it. Every single Member on that side of the Chamber knows it, and that is why they are pushing for reforms. Let me give the Members on that side of the Chamber an insight. Your community also knows that these actions and these reforms are not fixing the problem. What is so terrible, though, is you cannot see them standing up and calling for the reforms that are needed. We need to be tougher. We need to have consequences built into our system. We need to make sure that the worst offenders are not allowed out of the revolving bail door that exists in this state. The community knows about the lawlessness that exists. The community are victims to these crimes. They have had enough. This government is weak, weak, weak when it comes to crime, and Victorians know it.