The Minns Labor Government has walked away from protecting regional communities dealing with the youth crime crisis, voting against the Opposition’s strong bail reforms in Parliament today.
The NSW Nationals have been pushing for swift and calculated action since a letter signed by the entire party room was sent to the Premier in March 2024.
Chris Minns however ignored those calls, which is why The Nationals put forward the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Youth Crime) Bill 2025 to offer tougher measures than Labor’s approach, by:
• Expanding the definition of repeat offences beyond serious break and enter and motor vehicle theft, to include all serious indictable offences like murder or sexual assault.
• Introducing electronic monitoring and a mandatory curfew as conditions of bail.
• Revoking bail if there is a breach of the bail conditions, if another charge is laid while on bail, or if there is any interference with the electronic monitoring device.
• Elevating the voice of victims in the court through the use of victim impact statements.
NSW Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders said Labor would rather play politics with people’s lives than find a sensible way forward.
“Bipartisanship is sometimes hard to come by, but on a serious issue like this where it’s our regions that are suffering, I really hoped the government would have worked with us on some real solutions,” Mr Saunders said.
“Instead, what we saw today was a bitter betrayal to every regional resident who doesn’t feel safe on the streets or in their own homes and is looking to this Government for hope and support.”
Despite the latest Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) data showing improvement in some areas, regional residents are still being held to ransom every single day, including a motel owner in Moree who was allegedly stabbed by a 13-year-old over the weekend.
“When an alleged offender is back on the streets on bail before their victim is even released from hospital, there’s something very wrong with the system, and shows the laws we have in place are clearly not working,” Mr Saunders said.
“Our police are doing the best they can but are constantly let down by Labor’s revolving door and something needs to immediately change if we are going to stop these serious repeat youth offenders from carrying out crime sprees across our cities and towns.”
“No one deserves to be living in a constant state of panic and fear and the time for strong action is now.”
