Vulnerable people are destined to needlessly die in custody awaiting trial, experts say, as a state government capitulates to calls for harsher bail laws.
A bail shake-up was unveiled by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday following a snap review to combat mounting community angst.
Billed to give Victoria the toughest bail laws in the land, the proposed changes mostly target a small group of repeat teen offenders following a rise in aggravated burglaries and youth crime hitting a 15-year high in 2024.
"It will be a jolt to the system," Ms Allan told reporters.
Victoria tightened bail laws in 2018 after James Gargasoulas drove into Melbourne's busy Bourke Street Mall in 2017 while on bail, killing six people and injuring dozens more.
A coronial inquest into the death of Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson in 2020 found the changes were a "complete and unmitigated disaster".
It sparked reforms, promised by former premier Daniel Andrews and enacted in March 2024, to make it easier for lower-level offenders to get bail.
Less than 12 months on, Ms Allan conceded the government had got the changes "wrong" and said she was deeply sorry for pain and trauma suffered by victims of crime.
"It has been heartbreaking," she said.
Rishi Nathwani KC, a leading Victorian silk, said the proposed changes were not dissimilar to those implemented after the Bourke Street tragedy.
"What happened in the Veronica Nelson inquest will happen again," the Liberty Victoria spokesman told AAP.
"It will catch people who shouldn't be caught and, as a consequence, there will be people who end up in custody that die."
The proposed change to scrap remand as a "last resort" for accused youth offenders will mean children are effectively treated as adults, Mr Nathwani said.
He accused the government of playing "populist politics" instead of following evidence-based policy as presented by the coronial inquest and state's Indigenous truth-telling commission.
"It's hard not to think this is a consequence of Z-list celebrities and radio stations going on a drive about a number of horrible offences in Brighton," he said.
The proposed bail laws repeat past failures and would be some of the "most dangerous, discriminatory and unjust bail laws" in the country, the Human Rights Law Centre said.
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service described the moves as "knee jerk" and questioned the government's motives, while the Law Institute of Victoria noted children were more likely to re-offend the earlier and longer they interacted with the criminal justice system.
The government will introduce a bill to parliament on Tuesday and Ms Allan wants it to pass both houses by the end of the next sitting week.
That would leave less time than usual for non-government MPs and interest groups to scrutinise the legislation.
The opposition is demanding a copy of the bill but flagged its intention to move amendments to strengthen the laws even further.
"The premier got it wrong, Victorians have suffered as a result and her poor judgement should be her political epitaph," shadow attorney-general Michael O'Brien said.
Greens justice spokeswoman Katherine Copsey said the state needed early intervention and preventative measures to get to the root case of the problem, not "knee-jerk policy".
Police union boss Wayne Gatt said it was high time the government listened to seven million Victorians screaming for change.
"There'll be detractors in today's announcement," he said.
Those people will not be the ordinary people in the streets of Victoria who have been subjected to aggravated burglaries on repeat day after day."
The bail law review, led by Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny and Police Minister Anthony Carbines, was announced days out from the Werribee by-election.
Labor suffered a 16.5 per cent fall in its primary vote but narrowly reclaimed the heartland seat in Melbourne's outer west.
