21 hours ago
Tough bail laws pass Victorian parliament
Overnight, Victoria passed its tough new bail laws following a mammoth sitting that stretched into the night.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, shared a video to X around 12.30am and said:
We’ve just passed the tough new bail laws, the toughest in the country. And these laws have consequences for people who break the rules, putting community safety first.
Labor’s controversial “tough” bail laws come amid ongoing debate over what some have labelled a “youth crime crisis” in the state.
The bail law changes scrap the principle of remand only as a “last resort” for accused youth offenders. In its place, community safety would become the “overarching principle” when deciding bail for children and adults.
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Allan government accused of ‘capitulating to tabloid media’ with ‘dangerous’ bail laws
Reactions have been flowing after the Victorian government passed its controversial new tough bail laws overnight.
Nerita Waight, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said that tightening bail laws “only causes more harm to Aboriginal Communities, there is clear and ample evidence on this.”
There is still time for premier [Jacinta] Allan to show strong leadership by listening to the experts, taking an evidence-based approach and investing in what actually works – early intervention, preventative, community-based supports that address the underlying causes of offending behaviour.
First Nations director at the Human Rights Law Centre, Maggie Munn, said it was “deeply shameful” the Allan government had not learnt from “past policy failures”, and instead “capitulated to the tabloid media to entrench dangerous bail laws that undermine people’s right to liberty”.
And Louisa Gibbs, CEO of the Federation of Community Legal Services Victoria, said the state’s legal sector was “united in our position that rewinding bail laws is a costly and dangerous mistake that will cause far more harm than good, without addressing community safety.”
Data shows that when people are incarcerated, including on remand, they are more likely to offend again. So, locking up more people runs the risk of more offending in our community in the long term.
Swan says more supermarket competition and price scrutiny needed amid ACCC report
ALP president Wayne Swan has also weighed in on the ACCC’s report into the big supermarkets, telling the Today show that it “shows what every consumer knew back at the end of 2022, 2023, that they were price gouging”.
And now the government has to put in place a whole set of rules and regulations and scrutiny, which can ensure that this never happens again in this way.
Swan said there needed to be “more new entrants into the market, [and] much more price scrutiny”.
I think they took advantage of the inflationary surge that was on back then, which makes their behaviour all the more disgusting. So that’s why they’re going to have a lot more scrutiny as we go forward.
He said that “sunlight is the best disinfectant when it comes to the behaviour of corporates”.
And we need a lot more scrutiny, not just of the big supermarkets, but big tech and all of those companies that are prone to price gouging.
Coles responds to ACCC report into big supermarkets
As Martin flagged earlier, the long-awaited competition watchdog’s report into the big supermarkets says the retailers raised prices in the cost-of-living crisis to help them become among the most profitable in the world.
AAP reports that the supermarkets maintain they have not engaged in price-gouging, claiming their profit margins haven’t increased dramatically in recent years.
Coles said in a statement in response to the report:
Customers are increasingly cross-shopping and splitting their grocery spend across a range of retailers – both in store and online. Coles must compete vigorously for a share of consumers’ grocery baskets.
Coles added that it understood the cost-of-living challenges faced by families and warned against measures that would “increase red tape and drive up costs”.
You can read the full details of the ACCC below:
Tough bail laws pass Victorian parliament
Overnight, Victoria passed its tough new bail laws following a mammoth sitting that stretched into the night.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, shared a video to X around 12.30am and said:
We’ve just passed the tough new bail laws, the toughest in the country. And these laws have consequences for people who break the rules, putting community safety first.
Labor’s controversial “tough” bail laws come amid ongoing debate over what some have labelled a “youth crime crisis” in the state.
The bail law changes scrap the principle of remand only as a “last resort” for accused youth offenders. In its place, community safety would become the “overarching principle” when deciding bail for children and adults.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties – thanks to Martin for getting us started this morning. I’ll be taking you through our live coverage for most of today.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s go.
Sarah Basford Canales
Greens urging Albanese government to lift income supports above poverty line
The Greens are urging the Albanese government to lift income support payments in next week’s federal budget, adding it is the last opportunity before Australians go to the polls to “to turn [Labor’s] platitudes into meaningful action”.
The minor party’s social services spokesperson, Penny Allman-Payne, wrote to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, yesterday in a last-minute bid to raise rates above the poverty line.
The government’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee released its 2025 report earlier this month recommending the jobseeker rate be increased to 90% of the aged pension.
As Guardian columnist Greg Jericho outlined on Thursday, the current base rate of the age pension is $1,047.10 or $1,144.40 with supplements. If jobseeker was raised to 90% of the base rate, it would cost the government $3.5bn and to raise it to 90% of the total including supplements would cost $5.2bn.
Welfare support payments received a minor boost on Thursday after indexation came into effect. Those receiving jobseeker payments over 22 and without children received a $3.10 fortnightly increase to $789.90 while couples on jobseeker will now get $1,149 after a $4.60 increase.
The jobseeker base rate was raised by $40 a fortnight in Labor’s 2023 federal budget, coming into effect in September that year. Allman-Payne wrote:
This budget is your government’s last opportunity before the federal election to turn platitudes into meaningful action, by raising the rate of all Centrelink payments to above the poverty line. On behalf of the millions of people in this country who continue to struggle on poverty payments, we implore you to do so.
Greens call for workplace racial equality agency
Krishani Dhanji
The Greens have called to establish a workplace racial equality agency to document experiences of racism in workplaces and improve racial equity.
The agency would collect data and public information on indicators such as representation in the workforce and in governing bodies, record instances of racism, and would try to improve equality in hiring practices, pay and workplace training.
The minor party says they would put forward almost $100m to support the agency in the medium term and it comes on the Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The deputy Greens leader, Mehreen Faruqi, says the agency will help “provide the proactive focus needed to eliminate racism in workplaces”:
Systemic and entrenched racism in workplaces is not going to go away by itself, it needs concerted effort.
As Dutton and the Liberals mirror Trump to ramp up their attacks on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, we must double down on strong action for racial equity to address deep-seated racism.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then my colleague Emily Wind will take you through the day.
Australia’s rapidly changing relationship with the United States is the subject of two of our top stories this morning. First, former chief of the defence force Chris Barrie has warned that “the vandals in the White House” are no longer reliable allies and urged the Albanese government to reassess its strategic partnership with the US.
At the same time, some of America’s biggest tech companies such as Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon and Elon Musk’s X have lodged a formal complaint urging the Trump administration to target “coercive and discriminatory” Australian media laws.
Closer to home, meanwhile, the long-awaited competition watchdog’s report into the big supermarkets says the retailers raised prices in the cost-of-living crisis to help them become among the most profitable in the world. In a 441-page report released last night, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission made 20 reform recommendations to the federal government, including forcing Coles, Woolworths and Aldi to publish all prices on their websites, and notify shoppers when package size changes in a bid for transparency around “shrinkflation”. Reaction coming up.
