Victoria’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, says public perceptions of a “youth crime crisis” influenced her decision to delay laws that would make it easier for children to receive bail.
Symes has confirmed she will move amendments on Thursday to have the presumption of bail for children removed from the bail amendment bill, and instead have it become part of a future youth justice bill.
The government had initially planned to implement a presumption of bail for children accused of any crime except terrorism and homicide offences, and had enough support on the crossbench for the bail bill to pass the upper house unchanged.
But the attorney general said she wanted to “pause” the child bail laws until the youth justice bill was introduced in early 2024.
“Child bail reform is still on the agenda,” Symes said outside parliament. “This is not a backflip, this is just a pause. The practical effects of this are minimal.
“I do not want a discussion about a youth crime crisis that doesn’t exist, and I think that if we proceed with those reforms in this bill without the broader conversation about how we are responding to youth crime, we risk the perception of community safety diminishing.
“That’s a responsibility that I take seriously, as well as responding to the reality of crime.”
In September, a 14-year-old boy suffered life-altering injuries after he was allegedly abducted as he walked home from school.
Another teenager has been charged with armed robbery intentionally causing serious injury over the alleged attack.
The shadow attorney general, Michael O’Brien, welcomed the government’s decision on the bail changes.
“The government has done a 180-degree flip when it comes to youth bail,” O’Brien said.
“What’s changed? The premier’s changed but also the headlines have changed. It shows you this is a government that simply responds to headlines, not to good policy ideas.”
O’Brien said he had been urging the government to reconsider the changes “weeks before any of these recent high-profile youth offending incidents occurred”.
“The [government’s bill] would have seen a young person charged with serious offences such as armed robbery, aggravated home invasions, or rape facing the same test for bail as a young person who pinches a car or steals a packet of chewy from the service station. It made no sense,” he said.
The Greens said the decision was “incredibly weak and retrograde”, and may lead to lifelong damage to children.
“The government knew what needed to be done yesterday to protect children and increase community safety, but today politics has trumped doing what is right,” said the party’s justice spokesperson, Katherine Copsey.
The Human Rights Law Centre’s acting managing lawyer, Amala Ramarathinam, said it was a “senseless backflip”. She said of the Aboriginal children and young people in detention, 82% were on remand as at May.
“The Allan government should be taking every step today so that no child is waiting for a court hearing locked up in a police or prison cell. Instead, they are senselessly delaying what could have been positive and much-needed changes,” she said.
However, Symes said the effect of delaying the changes would be “minimal”.
“Children … probably 99% of the time can demonstrate exceptional circumstances or compelling reasons not to be put into custody,” she said.
The government has been under pressure to reform the state’s bail laws after the damning coronial findings into the death of the First Nations woman Veronica Nelson, who died in prison in 2020 after being arrested for shoplifting offences.
The coroner who investigated the Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman’s death described previous changes to the Bail Act as a “complete and unmitigated disaster”, and recommended urgent reform.
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Centre said the “regressive and punitive” bail laws were only being changed thanks to the advocacy of Nelson’s family, but that there was more work to do.
