Professor Marilyn McMahon

You had strong opposition to the bill coming from a number of quarters, primarily from legal representatives and organisations, human rights organisations, and especially First Nations people and organisations.

Lawyers and legal organisations emphasised the traditional concerns that bail should only be denied in exceptional circumstances because it breaches the right to liberty and also it breaches the presumption of innocence.

Community organisations draw attention to the well-known negative consequences if people are denied bail.

People can lose their job, they'll be separated from their families, it causes mental distress and also exposes people to the dangers and stresses of a prison environment.

You had very strong opposition coming from the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and other organisations representing First Nations people because they are so disproportionately affected by harsh bail laws.

And we've seen this, the terrible case of Veronica Nelson, a First Nations woman who died in custody after being denied bail for committing minor offences, showed just how

The escalation of a minor offence with a vulnerable individual could result in such a terrible consequence.

A Victorian coroner, Simon McGregor, found today Ms Nelson had been treated in a cruel, inhumane and degrading way by corrections officers and medical staff in the 36 hours she'd been in custody.

There's research from the New South Wales Law Reform Commission that tells us there'll be a small portion of people who are denied bail who will ultimately be found not guilty of their offences with which they're charged.

That means people will have been incarcerated and served time in prison for offences for which they're found not guilty.

That's wrong.

I think we've also got very strong opposition coming from the Children's Commissioner in Victoria and other organisations representing youth.

Basically what they're pointing to is that we have a breach of our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

which specifies that detention should only be a measure of last resort for youth.

What we've got now under these reforms is that young people will be treated like adults when bail decision makers have to decide whether to remand them or release them into custody.

Very predictably, what we'll now be experiencing is a significant increase in the number of young people who are being detained in prisons, youth centres in Victoria.

And these laws, as Premier Jacinda Allen said, are the toughest in the country, but other states and territories are all moving in the same direction, are they not?

They are.

I think it's unfortunate.

But what you see in other jurisdictions is the same trend towards increasing putting people on remand.