Second strike rule created to tighten bail laws

New bail laws have been introduced to Victorian Parliament in an effort to curb reoffending and bolster community safety. Premier Jacinta Allan, Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny and Police Minister Anthony Carbines introduced the Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025 into parliament last week. The bill establishes a new bail test for repeat and serious offenders and creates a second-strike rule for those already on bail accused of further offences. This follows changes earlier this year, which have already seen a rise in bail revocations and remand numbers. The government’s aim is to reduce reoffending risk and ensure the justice system prioritises community safety. The new test targets those on bail and charged again with offences including aggravated home invasion, aggravated carjacking, armed robbery, aggravated burglary, home invasion and carjacking. This surpasses similar New South Wales laws by applying it to all ages permanently. A second-strike rule will broaden the impact beyond the six serious offences. Building on the stand-alone offence of ‘committing an indictable offence on bail’ introduced in March, this bill “uplifts” the bail test for repeat indictable offending, making it tougher than it would be for first-time offenders. Offences subject to this uplift include burglary, motor vehicle theft, assaults, robbery, riot and affray, firearms and controlled weapons offences, sex offences, serious drug offences, theft over $2500, and criminal damage exceeding $5000 or caused by fire. Safeguards are in place to mitigate disproportionate impacts on vulnerable people, with lower-harm offences like low-level drug possession exempt from uplift. This second bill expands on earlier legislation that prioritised community safety in bail decisions, created bail offences, removed the ‘last resort’ principle for youth remand and subjected high-harm offences, such as knife crime, to stricter bail tests. The government anticipates a further increase in adult and youth offenders on remand, prompting the hiring of hundreds of new prison staff and the addition of almost 1000 adult prison beds system-wide, plus 88 beds at Cherry Creek and Parkville youth justice facilities. Premier Jacinta Allan said they needed to go further under tough new bail laws to keep Victorians safe. “Victorians are rightly disgusted with repeated, violent offending and now our bail laws are the toughest in the country, because community safety will always come first,” she said. Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said these laws protect the community from serious repeat offenders who endanger Victorians, while ensuring vulnerable people aren’t unfairly caught up. Police Minister Anthony Carbines said 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.

Second strike rule created to tighten bail laws

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