The Allan Labor Government is banning private companies from providing electronic monitoring as a condition of bail – putting community safety first.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny today announced these reforms as part of the Bail Further Amendment Bill, which targets alleged repeat offenders and builds on the Labor Government’s March reforms to create the toughest bail laws in Australia.
Currently, electronic monitoring can be imposed as a bail condition, requiring individuals to wear GPS trackers and pay private providers for the service. We’re putting an end to that.
The ban will prevent bail decision makers from setting future conditions involving private electronic monitoring.
This change brings Victoria into line with New South Wales, which banned private electronic monitoring as a condition of bail earlier this year.
These reforms do not impact the separate trial of electronic monitoring and intensive bail supervision for repeat alleged youth offenders, which started on 22 April and continues to operate under a government-led model.
Corrections Victoria will continue to electronically monitor offenders on parole orders, community corrections orders and post-sentence supervision orders.
The reforms provide flexibility for the Labor Government to examine the possible future expansion of electronic monitoring, subject to appropriate regulatory oversight to ensure community confidence.
This second Bill builds on the bail laws passed earlier this year that put community safety first in all bail decisions, introduced bail offences, removed the principle of remand as a ‘last resort’ for young people and elevated certain high-harm offences like knife crime into a tougher bail test.