WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH BAIL LAWS IN THE ACT?
Leanne Castley MLA
Leader of the ACT Liberals
Deborah Morris MLA
Shadow Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Community Safety
Shadow Minister for Corrections
Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence
Media Release
6 March 2025
Reports from ACT Police today that seven teenagers have been arrested in connection with numerous burglaries and stolen cars - all of them either on bail or subject to good behaviour orders – should set alarm bells ringing in the community.
The Canberra Liberals condemned the decision by the ACT Labor government to axe the planned review of the ACT’s bail laws by disbanding the Law Reform and Sentencing Advisory Council in February.
According to ACT Police:
All seven teenagers have come to police attention for similar offences and all were on bail or subject to good behaviour orders when they were arrested.
The alleged offenders have been apprehended by police more than 190 times, and one boy has been charged in relation to more than 70 offences.
Two of the teenagers have been arrested for breaching their bail conditions 11 times and one had been apprehended by police five times in the first two months of 2025.
Leader of the Canberra Liberals Leanne Castley said today that Labor has no interest in protecting the community from offenders, instead preferring to give law breakers greater human rights protection.
“Just this morning, we saw Labor, the Greens and the Independents oppose a Canberra Liberals amendment to the Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Amendment Bill 2025 that sought to prohibit convicted child sex offenders from seeking employment at legal services related to children,” Ms Castley said.
“And not much more than a couple of hours later, we see this incredibly disturbing story where repeat offenders out on bail, are continuing with their crime spree.
“ACT police have been calling for a review of the bail laws for a number of years now and Labor’s intransigence on this issue has come home to roost.
“Clearly something is wrong yet Labor scrapped the planned review of the legislation. They simply are out of touch and not reflecting community expectations.”
Shadow Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Community Safety Deborah Morris said hundreds of Canberrans have now become victims of crime because of Labor’s broken bail system.
“This government is totally soft on crime and it’s the community that are left to deal with the consequences,” Mrs Morris said.
“Just this week, Labor and the Crossbench teamed up to block life-saving laws to combat knife crime. They teamed up to block protections for children from convicted child sex predators. Now, the dangerous weakness of their bail system has been totally exposed.
“Every day our police officers put their lives on the line to keep our community safe. They are slugging their guts out rearresting offenders who are out in the community on bail.
“The Chief Police Officer was just this week on radio suggesting that courts give greater weight to police recommendations when it comes to bail considerations and we fully support them in this.”
The Canberra Liberals have long advocated for a review into the ACT bail legislation.
