Alister Henskens portrait
Alister Henskens portrait

Liberals and Nationals Progress Commonsense Bail Reform

Alister speaking in Parliament

The NSW Liberals and Nationals today introduced the Bail Amendment (Serious Personal Violence and Electronic Monitoring) Bill 2024, progressing commonsense proposals to strengthen bail laws in NSW.


Despite broad support across the Parliament for urgent action the NSW Labor Government appears to have no interest in working collaboratively or adopting a bipartisan approach to improving our state’s bail laws.


Since the NSW Labor Government blocked our attempt to strengthen bail laws on Tuesday, we have seen more reported cases of serious domestic violence against women – this is unacceptable.


More action can follow, but the time to act on bail is now.


The Opposition is proposing an extension of the current parole electronic monitoring to bail in cases of serious domestic violence charges. BOCSAR, the Department of Communities & Justice’s research unit found that electronic monitoring reduced DV reoffending by 33%.


The Opposition understand this; why doesn’t the NSW Labor Government?


If the NSW Labor Government does not present its bail reforms to the Parliament next week, the Opposition will again move to have our Bill debated and progressed.