The New South Wales government, led by Premier Chris Minns, has proposed legal reforms aimed at tightening rules around bail and introducing ankle monitors for serious domestic violence offenders. Announced on May 13, 2024, these measures include a significant change that reverses the presumption of bail for individuals charged with grave domestic violence-related crimes such as sexual assault, strangulation, kidnapping, and coercive control, which is set to be recognized as a criminal offense in July.
Under the proposed reforms, those granted bail could also be required to wear electronic monitoring devices. Additionally, the reforms seek to strengthen police authority to charge individuals using tracking and surveillance devices to manipulate victims. Further changes ensure all bail decisions must involve magistrates, even on weekends, and consider domestic abuse risk factors alongside the perspectives of victims and their families.
Alongside these specific measures to combat domestic violence, the government has introduced a broader $230 million emergency package to support victim-survivors of domestic, family, and sexual violence. These initiatives are part of a larger suite of law and order reforms following recent stabbing incidents at Bondi Junction and Wakeley. Additionally, changes allowing police to scan individuals for knives without a warrant in crowded places have been proposed, modeled on Queensland's Jack's Law.