Professor Marilyn McMahon

Marilyn, the Victorian government recently passed what it says are the toughest bail laws in the country.

So can you tell me about these laws?

Yes, the Premier certainly called them the toughest bail laws ever and said that the reforms will provide a jolt to the system.

What was introduced as part of those reforms was you had the principle of remand being a last resort for youth offenders was abandoned.

People charged with some crimes, including robbery, carjacking, home invasion and aggravated burglary, will now find it harder to get bail.

And the government has reintroduced the crimes of committing an indictable offence while on bail and breaching a bail condition.

Now, I think what we saw was that the legislation was rushed through Parliament.

They come into effect in a state where we've already got tough bail laws.

Perhaps the toughest in the country already.

It's part of that.

long-term trend where we've seen bail being turned into a pivotal point for crime prevention.

Traditionally, bail really operated as a mechanism to ensure people attended court for the hearing of their case.

But bail, bail decision-making has become much more about the risk that a person who's applying for bail will commit an offence if released on bail into the community.

That really means that bail has been politicised and it's now a key law and order issue for us.

And it's likely, I think, that what we'll see in coming years is that more than half the prison population in Victoria will be people who'll be held on remand.

That is, they haven't been convicted, they're being held prior to the hearing of their matter.

Now, that's, I think, a very disturbing statistic.

And as these laws were being debated in the Victorian Parliament, there were protests outside.

So can you talk to me about the opposition to this bill?

What are people saying?