Senator Lidia Thorpe is calling on Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to immediately release the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (SCAG) Bail and Remand Reform Working Group report, completed in July but still being withheld from the public.
The national report — produced by officials from every jurisdiction and First Nations representatives — reportedly urges governments to move away from punitive bail laws.
Several states are now seeking to suppress the document ahead of today’s SCAG meeting in Brisbane.
According to reporting in The Australian, which has been leaked the report, it recommends unwinding punitive bail laws, scrapping stand-alone breach-of-bail offences, and reinstating the fundamental principle that imprisonment should be a last resort, particularly for children.
Senator Thorpe says the onus is now on Attorney-General Rowland, and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, to stand up against the states and territories attempting to bury the evidence that their policies do not follow expert advice, and are breaching human rights.
In September, the Senate supported Senator Thorpe’s Order for the Production of Documents requiring the government to release the report — but the Albanese Government refused, claiming publication would “damage relations” with the states and territories.
Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian Senator:
"Governments are hiding a national report that tells the truth: punitive bail laws are harming our people, filling prisons, and breaching human rights.
They need to come clean. This report shows that the bail laws we see around the country go against the evidence and the advice of their own experts.
I put in an Order for the Production of this report, and the Senate backed it, but the Albanese Government still refused to hand it over. What are they hiding? The public has a right to know what their own officials and First Peoples are saying.
We’re watching state governments race to the bottom to look ‘tough on crime’ before elections. They’re building their campaigns on the bodies of our people, instead of listening to evidence.
Minister McCarthy keeps saying that reducing the number of people on remand is a priority for her, and that she and Attorney-General Rowland are committed to it. Well, today is the test. They must release this report, even if the states and territories don’t like what it says.
It’s time they stand up to the morally bankrupt states and territories that are harming so many people in their shallow efforts to win elections.
We know this report confirms what our people have been saying for years: locking people up for breaching bail, reversing the presumption of bail, and throwing kids on remand only makes things worse. It doesn’t prevent harm, it creates it.
Bail laws should follow the basic human rights principle that imprisonment is a last resort. That’s what this report says. That’s what Closing the Gap requires. That’s what any responsible government should be doing.
Today’s SCAG meeting can’t be another talk-fest. The Attorneys-General must release the full report. They need to stop hiding the evidence and start fixing the harm.
Nearly 35 years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made it clear: if you want to stop deaths in custody, you must reduce the number of people being imprisoned.
Instead, prison populations have exploded because of punitive bail laws. Today, over 80% of young people in custody are unsentenced, and we’ve seen a spate of deaths of people on remand.
We know the Albanese government has the constitutional power to legislate minimum standards in the criminal legal system, and can hold states and territories accountable through funding arrangements. But they are choosing to sit on their hands while our people continue to die.
The Attorney-General is too scared to use her power to override the states and territories, and she’s standing by while my people die and our children are tortured and violated. If she won’t act, she is complicit."
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