I rise today to speak on the Bail Further Amendment Bill ‍2025.

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. I just note the member for Nepean’s contribution before me.

Those opposite like to talk a very big game on crime, on bail, but it is actually our side of the chamber that is doing the most and has done the most in the past.

I have had feedback from police officers and others in Ripon that they have been more resourced in their police stations than ever before. You like to talk a big game, but it is actually we who are delivering on it.

Earlier this year, we strengthened bail tests for serious crimes and we reintroduced bail offences. This bill goes that step further to jolt the system and to send a message that bail must be respected. This bill introduces a new high degree of probability bail test for those accused of repeat serious offences committed while on bail, including home invasions, carjackings, armed robbery and burglaries.

It uplifts the bail test for people accused of committing an indictable offence while already on bail for an indictable offence and specifically lists pregnancy and caring responsibilities as surrounding circumstances to be considered in bail decisions.

The bill also amends the existing statutory review provision in the Bail Act 1977 to require that review to examine the impact of bail reform on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and it bans private electronic monitoring of people on bail, because no-one should be able to buy their access to bail.

Importantly, the bill also includes further amendments to improve the operation of bail laws, including ensuring individuals released on bail pending family violence intervention order proceedings can be charged with contravening their bail conditions and providing for reforms in the bill to be captured in the scheduled statutory review of the Bail Act.

Our community has been calling for these changes; they deserve to feel safe on our streets and in their homes. They look to our government to listen and act accordingly, and we have done just that. We have introduced the toughest bail laws in the country, putting community safety first to protect families from serious repeat offenders who endanger other Victorians.

We have also banned the sale of machetes, with a ban on possession of them kicking in from 1 September, and we have expanded random knife search powers for Victoria Police so they can seize thousands of weapons off our streets.

Locally I have recently attended community safety meetings and visited police stations in St Arnaud, Avoca, Maryborough, Creswick and beyond to discuss crime and how we can best address it. I recently hosted the Minister for Police in Ripon, who is at the table today, where we met with Victoria Police members and residents in Creswick and St Arnaud to talk through practical ways that we can strengthen community safety across our region. To my earlier point, those police officers, when the minister and I met them and went to their police stations, said that they have been more resourced under this government than ever before and really reiterated the point that there is a perception in the regions of crime but the data is actually looking pretty good. 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. You cannot go to someone and say, ‘Well, the data isn’t what you think.’ If they feel that there is that perception of crime, then we have to take that really seriously.

Victoria Police are doing a power of work to better equip our communities with information about the police assistance line, the Hoon Hotline, Crime Stoppers and other resources. Often many people I speak to across Ripon are not aware of some of these resources, like the Hoon Hotline, which I very much encourage people to take advantage of – that is through Crime Stoppers, the Hoon Hotline – because we know that we see a lot of hoons around, and we need to report them.

We have unfortunately seen some opportunistic crimes across Ripon in recent months, including theft from unlocked cars and homes and vandalism of property. I know, having grown up in country Victoria, we never locked our doors growing up. Many people just do not lock their doors and do not lock their cars, and there are criminals out there that take advantage of that. We need to make sure that we do what we can to prevent that crime from happening. Police have hosted community meetings about these issues and given advice about how locals can best avoid falling victim to such crimes, as well as how best to report them. We rely heavily on the men and women of Victoria Police to keep us all safe, and they do an incredible job. I want to sincerely thank every single police officer and Victoria Police member across Ripon. They are a part of our rural communities and work tirelessly day and night to protect our mums, dads, grandparents, kids, cousins and business owners. They are a part of our communities and they know our communities. I remember going into the Smythesdale police station for a cuppa with some of their police officers, and they knew every person by name in the town when someone came in to report something. They are very much ingrained in our communities, and we thank them for all that they do.

I also want to give a particular shout-out to our prison staff across Ripon. I have got several correctional facilities and I have got I think the most correctional employees of any electorate in Victoria. Employees from Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat and Langi Kal Kal Prison outside Beaufort do really tough work and they protect our communities in so many ways.

This bill today will help strengthen the system to support our local police and our corrections staff across Ripon by strengthening our bail laws even more. It will mean people repeating serious crimes will not be allowed out on bail easily, and this is what our police officers want to see and also our local communities. Many have said to me their resources are up, they are doing well, but they want to see those bail changes, and that is exactly what we are doing. Many people have raised their concerns with me about repeat offenders getting off too easily, and they worry that they are getting a slap on the wrist and it is not being taken seriously, but this is changing, and the proof is already there. As of May this year there are 465 more people on remand in our prisons compared to April last year.

We have also introduced post-and-boast offences targeting people who commit crimes and boast about them online. It is all part of our government’s focus on cracking down on crime as well as breaking the cycle of reoffending and preventing crime before it begins. To do this we have delivered a massive record $1.6 billion for our community safety package in this year’s state budget. This includes $727 million to expand capacity in our prisons and youth justice system, making sure that we have the infrastructure to hold serious offenders accountable, and also $176 million to break the cycle of reoffending before it begins, including $135 million for rehabilitation and reintegration programs to give young people a real shot at turning their lives around.

Our government is adapting laws to address new challenges and make sure that our system is responsive to those community concerns. Unlike those opposite, who have a lock-up-everyone approach, this is bail reform that truly prioritises community safety and ensures that the most serious and repeat offenders are held to account, not vulnerable individuals caught up by disadvantage.

We have included safeguards in this bill to ensure that low-level, nonviolent offences like minor shoplifting, low-value theft, low-value property damage or low-level drug possession do not trigger this uplift. This side of the chamber believes in a justice system that is fair but firm, a system that protects the presumption of innocence but never forgets the rights of victims or the safety of the community. We are keeping our community safe and constantly improving our system to make sure that we get it right. This is what Victorians have called for, and I look forward to updating my community on the improvements that this bill makes this week. I commend the bill to the house.