Thursday, 13 November 2025

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:08): My question is to the corrections minister. The government’s new bail laws have led to the entirely predictable outcome of having our jails overflowing with prisoners on remand awaiting trial. They have also led to an increase in remand prisoners missing their court hearings. The overcrowded cells at the Magistrates’ Court are forcing corrections staff to prioritise who they transport in from police stations and remand centres from around the state. Non-priority prisoners are having their cases adjourned and ending up spending longer in jail. Magistrates are increasingly frustrated with this situation, complaining about:

… people not being taken from prison [or] police cells to court.

I ask: what is Corrections Victoria doing to address the unacceptable situation of remand prisoners missing their court hearings because of the overcrowding of custody cells?

 Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:09): I thank Mr Ettershank for his question and his interest in this matter. I do note, Mr Ettershank, I think it was Ms Copsey that asked a similar question yesterday in this chamber, in this place, and I do understand there is a large public interest in this matter. What I will say at the outset is that police cells are the responsibility of Victoria Police for providing service to people held in their custody.

That is just factual. I know people might not want to accept that. From the corrections side, we are making significant investments to scale up our system, so we are doing that work to make sure we can scale up, because there is clearly a bottleneck in the system at the moment. We are confident that a lot of that will be alleviated in due course. In the meantime there are a number of ways that people can appear in court. Every prisoner can appear in court in person, but there is also technology via video link, which is available at many of our facilities. We have made significant investments in this space. There have been a lot of benefits from the pandemic – we were able to scale up the technology in this space so that people can attend court. I encourage the courts and Victoria Police to make use of video links to enable prisoners to attend in this format, where appropriate.

I hear a lot of interjections from that side. I know you did not back our tough new bail laws because you want to keep those criminals on the streets, but we are not going to make apologies for taking them off our streets. Community safety is always a priority of this government. We will continue to introduce laws that keep Victorians safe.

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:11): Thank you, Minister. If we can move beyond that ‘it’s a police sort of problem’, a recent inquest heard evidence that prisoners on remand are regularly shuffled across jails and police cells across Victoria, where it can be difficult to access medication, mental health support and other vital services and there is no access to rehabilitation programs. They are typically housed in those cells for 23 hours a day. This can lead to tragic outcomes, particularly for First Nations people, who as we know are over-represented in those police cells. Victoria Legal Aid criminal law executive director Kate Bundrock noted that:

… clients used to spend two or three nights on remand in a police cell. Now it is common for them to spend up to two weeks and in some cases even longer –

while they await their hearing. Now more people are completing their entire sentences in prison cells. I ask: what is Corrections Victoria doing to address the housing of prisoners on remand in police cells?

 Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:12): I thank Mr Ettershank for his supplementary question. Similar to the substantive question, Mr Ettershank, that question really should be directed to the police minister in the other place. Police cells should be a temporary solution, and police are responsible and have established processes for supporting prisoners in their cells. If there are issues with the treatment of people in those cells, that is a question really directed to the police minister. I will ask for some direction from the President in relation to that issue.

The PRESIDENT: As I have said before, members have got the right to ask any minister a question. A minister has the right to say that that question should be directed to another minister if they believe it is not within their remit.