Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan; Attorney-General, Sonya Kilkenny and Minister Police, Anthony Carbines will today introduced the Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025 into Parliament.
The new Bill aims to strengthen Victoria’s bail laws, prevent reoffending and keep the community safe.
It sets out:
- a new bail test for people accused of repeat, serious offending to protect Victorian families and deal with repeat, high-harm offending, and
- creates a new ‘second strike’ rule for people already on bail who are accused of further offending, making it harder for them to get bail.
“We said we needed to go further under our tough new bail laws to keep Victorians safe and that is what we are delivering,” said Premier allan.
“Victorians are rightly disgusted with repeated, violent offending. Now, our bail laws are the toughest in the country, because community safety will always come first.”
The new bail test will apply to those on bail for and charged again with any of the following offences:
- aggravated home invasion
- aggravated carjacking
- armed robbery
- aggravated burglary
- home invasion, and
- carjacking.
Subjecting people accused of repeat, serious offending to a new, tougher bail test increases the likelihood that bail will be refused and prevents re-offending, said Minister Carbines.
Bail must be refused unless the decision maker is satisfied there is a high degree of probability the person will not commit one of these offences if bail is granted.
“Our frontline police work hard day and night to keep the community safe — these tough new laws will back that work and send the strongest possible message to serious, repeat offenders,” he said.
This test goes further than similar laws in NSW because it will apply to all ages and is permanent, the Government says.
In March, Victoria introduced the stand-alone offence of ‘committing an indictable offence on bail’. Today’s Bill builds on that work by uplifting the bail test for people accused of repeat indictable offending. ‘Uplift’ is where the bail test for a person accused of repeat offending is stricter than it would be for a person accused of an offence for the first time.
The offences that will be subject to the new uplift provisions include:
- Burglary
- Motor vehicle theft
- Assaults
- Robbery
- Riot and affray
- Firearms and controlled weapons offences
- Sex offences
- Serious drug offence
- Theft ($2,500)
- Criminal damage (above $5,000, or where damage is caused by fire).
The Government says the reforms are subject to key safeguards to mitigate any disproportionate impact on vulnerable people.
Certain lower harm offences committed while on bail like low-level drug possession will not be subject to uplift to avoid remanding vulnerable people unnecessarily.
“These laws protect the community from serious repeat offenders who endanger Victorians, while ensuring vulnerable people aren’t unfairly caught up,” the Attorney-General said.
