Breach Bail, Go to Jail: An Important Step for Victims and Community Safety

Voice for Victims Foundation welcomes and strongly supports the Breach Bail, Go to Jail laws that have now been introduced into the Queensland Parliament.

We stand with the victims and families whose lives have been forever changed by offenders who were given the opportunity to remain in the community on bail, only to breach that trust and go on to commit further offences.

For those victims, this issue is not political. The consequences are real, permanent and, in some cases, devastating.

Victim-survivors of violent crime know only too well the profound and often lifelong impact crime can have. Yet for too long, the rights and considerations afforded to offenders have, at times, appeared to outweigh the welfare, safety and voices of the victims their actions create.

Bail is an opportunity – and with that opportunity comes responsibility.

Allowing an accused person to remain in the community while their matter progresses through the justice system comes with conditions that must mean something. When those conditions are deliberately breached, particularly by repeat offenders, there must be meaningful consequences.

Voice for Victims sees this reform as an important step towards strengthening accountability and creating a safer and fairer justice system for Queenslanders who respect the law.

We fully support and applaud the Queensland Government for listening to victims and victim-survivors and acting on their concerns. Too often, victims have felt their voices are secondary in conversations about criminal justice reform. These laws demonstrate what can be achieved when their experiences – and the safety of the broader community – are genuinely considered.

We would, however, have liked to see bipartisan support for a reform of such importance to victims and community safety. The protection and consideration of victims should not be a political dividing line.

Voice for Victims will continue to advocate for greater balance within our justice system. We believe the rights and interests of victims must be given at least equal consideration to those accused or convicted of harming them.

Victims may not always have the strongest voice in our justice system, but they should at the very least be able to expect balance – a system that considers not only the rights of offenders, but also the lives of the people impacted by their actions.

Breach Bail, Go to Jail is another important step towards achieving that balance.