By Rachel Eddie and Annika Smethurst
Warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: This story contains images and references to a deceased person.
Victorians accused of low-level crimes will find it easier to get bail under long-awaited justice reforms, which have been brought forward by six months after The Age revealed the intended 12-month draft timeline.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes will introduce the new bill to parliament this week partly to wind back 2018 changes under which the number of Aboriginal women in custody nearly doubled within a year. The Greens have pushed for bail reform while the opposition has expressed an openness to it.
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes.Credit: Eddie Jim
The bail system was thrown into the spotlight in January when coroner Simon McGregor handed down damning findings into the death in custody of Veronica Nelson and called for significant changes to the way Aboriginal people are treated within the criminal justice system.
The reforms are now due to be implemented six months after the bill passes both houses of state parliament, halving the expected delay after The Age revealed last month that the Department of Justice and Community Safety was working towards a 12-month timeline.
The bill will abolish the “double uplift” provision for people accused of committing low-level offences while already on bail under the “unacceptable risk” test. The test will remain for other offences.
The government tightened bail laws after James Gargasoulas killed six people in the 2017 Bourke Street massacre while on bail. The 2018 changes also expanded the “reverse onus” test, which required people who were accused of a wide range of offences to prove “compelling reasons” and “exceptional circumstances” to be granted bail.
While the government will not scrap the “reverse onus” test, it will effectively limit it to those charged with more serious offences, by removing the uplift clause for low-level offences.
The Human Rights Law Centre, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and Nelson’s family have previously called on the Andrews government to make urgent changes to scrap the reverse onus provision. The coroner in January said the hardened provision breached the charter of human rights.
Nelson, a 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman whose death was found to have been preventable, died alone in a cell at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in January 2020 with a rare gastrointestinal condition, opiate withdrawal and malnutrition. She had been arrested for shoplifting and failing to appear on bail.
Tributes to Veronica Nelson inside the Coroners Court during her inquest last year.Credit: Eddie Jim
A winding back of the bail laws is expected to face opposition from Victoria’s powerful police union.
As first revealed by The Age last month, bail-specific offences will be repealed under the proposal.
If they are denied bail, an accused would be able to make a subsequent bail application without having to bring new facts.
Children will have the presumption of bail except for serious offences such as terrorism and homicide.
The bill will also introduce offences that a person cannot be remanded for, to stop people who are unlikely to be sentenced to a prison term if found guilty from ending up behind bars in the interim.
Police and the courts are required to consider whether a person is Aboriginal before denying bail, which would be strengthened under the government’s reforms.
Symes said the changes would ensure vulnerable people accused of low-level crimes were not unnecessarily held in prison on remand while retaining a “tough approach” for people accused of violent offences.
“These reforms are sensible, proportionate and necessary. They address the most urgent changes needed to our bail system so that those involved in minor offending don’t have a major life setback because of it,” Symes said on Tuesday.
“We also have a responsibility to Victorians to protect the community from serious offending. Our reforms maintain the tough approach to those who pose a serious risk to people’s safety that Victorians expect.”
Nelson’s family in March outlined their vision for change, referred to as Poccum’s Law, named after Nelson’s nickname as a child.
Images contained in this story were released to the media with permission from the family. For crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).
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