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Bail review hits town
16 June 2005
Magistrates, police, lawyers and Indigenous representatives will have the chance to air problems with bail laws when the Victorian Law Commission visits Shepparton on Monday.
The commission is visiting Shepparton, Moe, Geelong and Mildura to listen to regional people’s experiences with the Bail Act, which the commission is currently reviewing.
“We have already spoken to people in Melbourne and we now want to hear if there any issues with how bail operates and impacts on people in country towns,” commission chairperson Professor Marcia Neave said.
“In other consultations we’ve been told there is an urgent need to rewrite the Bail Act. People criticised the complexity and structure of the Act and said the language needed to be simplified to give better guidance to magistrates, police, lawyers and bail justices.
“We’ll also be exploring how current bail laws impact on Indigenous people and young people, as this is one of our terms of reference.
“Once we have finished our regional meetings we’ll start writing a consultation paper, which we plan to release by the end of this year. We encourage people to make a submission to us, either about the paper or their own experiences with bail.
“Submissions don’t have to be formal, typed reports. People can call up and speak to one of our researchers, come in to our office, email us or write to us,” Professor Neave said.