Territory Labor has just voted down amendments specifically designed to reflect community expectations around bail for violent offenders.
Leader of the Opposition Lia Finocchiaro said Labor’s bail reform Bill fell well short of what the community expected because it was limited to a very small list of weapons, deliberately excluding weapons like rocks, star pickets, bats, cars, and broken bottles.
“The CLP tried to amend the Bill so all violent offenders would start from a position of no bail, whether the crime involved a weapon or not,” she said.
“But Labor voted it down.”
In immediate response to this shut down, the CLP moved a second amendment in an attempt to expand the Bill to include “offensive weapons”.
“Expanding a start point of no bail for offenders who use or threaten to use ‘any’ weapon means offenders using rocks, broken glass, cars and other opportunistic weapons will start with no bail,” Mrs Finocchiaro said.
The definition of “offensive weapon” includes any article “made or adapted to cause damage to property or to cause injury or fear of injury to a person”.
Mrs Finocchiaro said if Labor was serious about meeting community expectations and making the community safer tomorrow, it would, at a minimum, support this second amendment.
“These are the weapons the community sees every day. They are the reason Territorians fear for their own safety. They are the reason people dread having to go to work,” she said.
“If Labor had attended the crime rally they would know the community expects violent offenders using anything as a weapon to be behind bars.”
ENDS