Greens threaten Andrews government with possible defeat in parliament over bail laws

The Victorian Greens are set to issue an ultimatum to the Andrews Labor government to reform the state’s bail laws within three months or risk a defeat on the issue in parliament’s upper house.

As parliament resumes on Tuesday, the minor party will introduce a private member’s bill to overhaul the state’s bail laws, declaring they will bring it to a vote if the government doesn’t introduce its own reforms in the next three months.

With four Greens MPs in the upper house – up from one in the last parliament – and the opposition flagging an interest in pursuing criminal justice reform during this term, it is possible the bill could pass the upper house, although it’s unlikely to then clear the legislative assembly.

Brunswick MP Tim Read, the Greens’ acting justice spokesperson, said the party was keen to work with all parties to progress “urgent” bail reform.

“What we’re after is meaningful reform to bail, which will lead to a significant drop in the number of unsentenced people in prison,” he told Guardian Australia.

“The government ought to be able to put a bill to parliament within three months that can do just that.”

The Bail Act, tightened in the wake of the 2017 Bourke Street massacre to keep repeat violent offenders out of the community, has led to significant rises in the state’s unsentenced prison population.

First Nations people, women and children have been disproportionately affected, with many remanded in custody for minor offences that would not ordinarily carry a sentence of imprisonment.

They include First Nations woman Veronica Nelson, who died in custody after being arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and refused bail.

The coroner who investigated her death last week handed down damning findings, in which he described the changes to the Bail Act as a “complete and unmitigated disaster”, and recommended urgent reform.

The Greens’ bill is largely unchanged from one that the party introduced to the upper house in 2021, which lapsed before the November state election.

It abolishes the “reverse onus” tests, introduced in 2018, which imposes a presumption against bail, replacing them with a simplified process in which the prosecution would need to establish an accused person was an unacceptable risk to the community in order to deny bail.

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The bill also adds other additional factors that may be considered in determining bail, including any parental responsibilities the accused may have; the likelihood of a custodial sentence should they be found guilty of the offence they are charged with; and any relevant human rights under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

The Greens will need the support of 17 MPs for the bill to pass the upper house. Other crossbenchers, including Liberal Democrat MP David Limbrick and Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell, have flagged their support for reform that would prevent people accused of minor crimes from being remanded in custody.

In the lower house, Read will push for reform in Tuesday’s question time, with Nelson’s long-term partner, Uncle Percy Lovett, expected to watch on from the public gallery.

The attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, told reporters on Monday she had been working on bail reform for some time but it was a complex area of law that could not be rushed.

“Some people have said you can do it tomorrow. I would politely argue that I would like to make sure that we are giving it the proper consideration, making sure we get it right,” Symes said.