Page 463 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017
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women, in our corrections system. So we are desperately trying to get that balance right and make sure that those who are a danger to our community or a flight risk are held on remand, while those who might be better off being in the community are given bail with the right conditions and the right supervision.
That is where the ACT Bail Act tries to strike a balance, and I think it is a reasonable balance. It sets out presumptions in favour of bail but also in some cases presumptions against bail. There is currently a presumption against giving a person bail for certain serious offences. These include a range of offences of violence or threats of violence, family violence offences and serious drug offences. The presumption against bail also applies to people who have been convicted of an indictable offence but have not yet been sentenced.
It is also important to note that the ACT’s bail system operates through the courts. It is quite different from the Victorian bail system, which uses a system of bail justices who are volunteers. Volunteer bail justices hear after-hours bail applications, and there have been questions asked recently in Victoria about whether their training is sufficient and whether all bail decisions should in fact be made by magistrates. The accused Bourke Street perpetrator was, as I understand it, released on bail on the decision of a volunteer bail justice. The review in Victoria is particularly focused on this issue of volunteer bail justices.
Members would know that the ACT uses a different bail system from Victoria’s. All of our bail decisions are made in the courts. We have to be careful when we look at events that happened in other jurisdictions, in different legal systems, and seek to apply that to our own system. We cannot just superimpose our feelings about a different jurisdiction onto the ACT and pretend that the issues are the same here. They are not always the same and we need to be mindful of those differences. The volunteer bail justice issue in Victoria is one that is being questioned now, and that is something that should be reflected on. Of course, these are difficult decisions and at the end of the day it is a human decision. It is a human decision whether or not to grant bail, and those charged with that significant responsibility must weigh up the evidence before them. One can imagine the personal reflections that they might make when a decision goes wrong.
I know there is always a temptation for politicians, particularly those who try to profit from the special style of law and order politicking, to take up these issues. I noted the commentary from the ACT Bar Association yesterday that calling for a review now only serves to cause unease when our bail laws already provide very strong protections for the community. That is a concern that I think has some merit.
The former New South Wales DPP, Nicholas Cowdery, has complained about a trend with conservative governments in particular, where they respond to isolated or anomalous events by announcing they will review bail laws or by legislating anew. He is probably on the mark with this comment, and I think Mr Hanson is probably trying an age-old conservative tactic of fanning community fear, leveraging a recent tragic event and demeaning the bail system, without a sound basis of evidence as to why it needs wholesale review and what the specific concern is.
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