Bail debate returns to parliament

The Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025 aims to improve community safety by toughening the response to serious high-harm offending and repeat offending while on bail.

Introducing the amendments to the Bail Act 1977 and Summary Offences Act 1966, Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said the bill builds on bail reforms passed by parliament in March 2025.

‘This first tranche of reforms bolstered community safety by prioritising community safety in all bail decisions; strengthening bail tests for several serious crimes; reintroducing bail offences; and removing the principle of remand as a last resort for children,’ she said.

The latest changes include a new ‘high degree of probability’ bail test (HDOP test) which will apply to people accused of six specific repeat, serious offences committed whilst on bail. 

They are aggravated home invasion, aggravated carjacking, armed robbery, aggravated burglary, home invasion and carjacking.

Members of the Opposition criticised the 26 March 2026 commencement date of the new laws.

‘This government is not going to do anything on these laws until the end of March, and that is a disgrace, because Victorians need action now,’ Malvern MP Michael O’Brien said.

A reasoned amendment, put forward my Mr O’Brien in a bid to give Victoria Police and Corrections Victoria more resources to implement the bill without delay was defeated 51-25.

Albert Park MP Nina Taylor said the first package passed in March is already working and remand numbers are up.

‘As at 6 August 2025 there was an increase of over 26 per cent of remanded youth and over 27 per cent of remanded adults since the same time last year,’ she said.

According to the state government, as of May 2025 there are 465 more people on remand in prison and 39 more young people on remand in youth justice, compared to April 2024.

‘Having a targeted and specific approach based on data and evidence surely should have credence in this chamber,’ Ms Taylor said.

Despite ultimately voting in favour of the bill, Morwell MP Martin Cameron said the new laws don’t go far enough.

‘Everybody in this chamber knows that we need change, and that is why we are here,’ he said.

‘We do need to strengthen our bail laws.

‘We need to make sure that we get it right to protect every single Victorian.’

Ripon MP Martha Haylett said the new legislation helps to address perceptions of crime and safety in regional areas.

‘This bill is all about keeping families and our whole community safe and building on the reforms that we have already made to our criminal justice system,’ she said.

‘The data is not necessarily up across our regional towns in Ripon, but the perception, as I said, is there, with many feeling worried about safety in our towns, and those feelings are genuine.’ 

In opposing the bill, Richmond MP Gabrielle De Vietri said Victorians want laws that actually work.

‘Public safety is not about more police and more prisons, it is about more care,’ she said.

‘The Greens will vote against the Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025, and we call on the government to drop this second tranche, to stop defunding intervention and to bring back a reinvestment strategy that funds prevention and diversion.

‘That is how we make Victoria safer.’

The bill passed the Lower House 73-3 and was sent to the Upper House for its consideration.

Debate on the bill resumes in the Legislative Council when parliament next sits on Tuesday 26 August.

Read the debate in the Legislative Assembly, with contributions from a range of MPs, in the Hansard in the morning, afternoon and late afternoon of 13 August 2025.