Juveniles who breach bail to go unpunished
Juveniles who breach their bail conditions will go unpunished under proposed changes to bail laws currently before State Parliament.
This means an alleged juvenile offender who is arrested and charged with a crime such as car theft, vandalism, shop-stealing or drug selling, and then released on a bail condition requiring them to stay at home at night or keep away from a shopping centre, will not incur any penalty if they breach that condition and do exactly what they were told not to do.
Young people, like everyone, need to learn to respect the law and need to learn there are consequences if they don’t. This change will give young offenders the opposite message – that they can treat the law with contempt and the law will do nothing about it.
That’s why Liberal and Nationals MPs are opposing this change and trying to have it defeated in the Legislative Council.
To read what I said on this in Parliament, see http://bit.ly/1pQ4Xw7.