Government bails on trimming bail laws

A State Government plan to remove mentioning the rights of the accused in the Bail Act has effectively been scrapped by Attorney General John Hatzistergos after insufficient support from crossbenchers.

The proposed legislation would also have increased maximum court adjournment time after a refusal of bail from eight days to 42.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the draft Bill had no friends in the legal, community or social justice sectors of NSW.

“It failed to address rising juvenile detention rates. It also side-stepped the public debate this State needs to have on s22A of the current Act that effectively prevents more than one bail application by most accused,” he said.

Attorney General Hatzistergos said there is no prohibition to applying for a new hearing in a higher court if the accused is unhappy with the lower court’s decision.

He quoted now shadow Attorney General Greg Smith, who said the aim of the bill was to restrict judge shopping.

He then turned on the Opposition, accusing them shifting policy and allying with the Greens.

The Greens criticised the government for giving the public 14 days to comment on the draft, published on October 13, saying it was inadequate.

Mr Hatzistergos said 16 major amendments in 25 years had made the law difficult and complex to follow.

“The draft bail bill aims at being clearer and simple to navigate to enable police to devote more time to front-line duties, to assist the judiciary to consistently apply the laws and to make it easier for victims and defendants to understand the process,” he said.

David Shoebridge accused the Government of a flawed draft and a rushed consultation process.

“The Bail Act does need urgent reform. It will however take a full public inquiry, not a rushed 14 day closed consultation process to achieve that,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“This outcome is testament to groups like the Youth Justice Coalition, Uniting Care Burnside and the Community Justice Coalition, who have all been campaigning for positive reform of NSW’s bail laws.”

by Lawrence Bull