Paul Murray Our Town: Mt Gambier
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Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
'Toughest' bail laws in land to target repeat offenders
Bailed crooks who commit serious crimes will find it "almost impossible" to keep their freedom under new laws. The Victorian government will introduce its second package of bail reforms to parliament on Tuesday, amid rising crime rates. These changes include a new bail test for people accused of repeat, serious offending and a "second strike" rule for those charged with further offending. "We are making it very clear to bail decision-makers across the system that in Victoria community safety comes first," Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters. "Victorians remain not just concerned but disgusted with what we are seeing with repeat offending." Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny described the bail test, for people accused of one of six offences while on bail, as the "toughest" in the nation. The offences covered are aggravated home invasion, aggravated carjacking, armed robbery, aggravated burglary, home invasion and carjacking. Bail must be refused unless the decision maker is satisfied there is a "high degree of probability" the person won't reoffend. Police Minister Anthony Carbines said the test went further than NSW laws as it was not time limited and didn't just apply to young people. "Your chances of getting bail are almost impossible," he said. The "second strike" rule will also make it harder people to get bail if accused of repeat indictable offending such as burglary, theft, assault, robbery, sex offences and serious drug offences. Ms Kilkenny said low-level drug possession, petty theft and crimes driven by poverty and homelessness would be carved out to mitigate disproportionate impact on vulnerable people. But she made it clear those offenders would still face a bail hearing. The legislation's default start date is March 30, 2026 but the attorney expects the laws to come into effect "as soon as system capacity permits and it's safe to do so". Victoria tightened bail laws in 2018 after James Gargasoulas drove into Melbourne's busy Bourke Street Mall in 2017 while on bail, killing six people and injuring dozens more. A coronial inquest into the death of Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson in 2020 found the changes were a "complete and unmitigated disaster", sparking a relaxation of laws in 2024. Ms Allan conceded the government "got it wrong" and vowed a crackdown on repeat serious offenders. Its first law changes removed the principle of remand as a last resort for children, made community safety an overarching principle for bail decisions and reintroduced bail offences. Victoria's latest crime statistics, which showed youth offending at a record high, were collected before the harsher bail laws were rolled out. But figures released by the justice department in mid June showed the number of youths being held on remand had doubled since the changes took effect in late March.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Banks to refund $60m to ripped-off customers
Thousands of Australians wrongly slugged with excessive bank charges will soon receive a refund, as the corporate regulator cracks down on these unfair practices. In a second round of payments announced on Tuesday, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said a further 770,000 customers will be refunded $60m. These refunds will be paid to low-income customers of 21 financial institutions receiving government concession payments, who were placed in higher-fee bank accounts despite a lower fee option being available to them. This follows $33m in fees already refunded to 150,000 customers which was previously paid out. Three of the major banks featured in ASIC initial report have now committed to providing refunds of bank fees to a broader group of low-income customers who have been in high-fee accounts. ASIC shows the impact of getting the bank refund. Picture Supplied Credit: Supplied ANZ will be paying the most out of the big four banks. According to the report, ANZ will pay out an estimated $47.9m to almost 590,000 account holders for fees dating back until mid-2019 and Westpac $9.9m for fees incurred since 2013. Commonwealth Bank says it won't be paying any more after previously paying $25m to around 90,000 Indigenous concession customer accounts. National Australia Bank was not included in the probe as it stopped carrying dishonour, account-keeping or overdraw fees on transaction accounts in 2014. ASIC chair Joe Longo said, despite the improvements banks have made during our surveillance, there is clearly work to be done. 'It should not take an ASIC review to force $93 million in refunds or make banks assess their processes to ensure the trust and expectations placed in them are justified,' he said. 'Banks need to truly hear the messages in this report — read it, review it, and ask themselves some difficult questions about what led to this situation.' Australians are set to be paid $60m in the second round of payments. NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar Credit: NewsWire As part of the changes, ASIC also encouraged banks to consider introducing or improving First Nations service channels, with six more banks now collecting data to identify First Nations customers to inform appropriate and sensitive service delivery. ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said what started as an initiative focused on addressing avoidable bank fees for low-income customers in regional and remote locations, particularly First Nations consumers, revealed a much wider problem affecting customers nationwide. 'When you read in the report that refunds of $1,200, $2,600 and $5,200 were paid, it's important to understand what those amounts mean for people struggling to make ends meet,' Mr Kirkland said. 'A $1,200 refund was equivalent to one customer's fortnightly Age Pension. A $2,600 refund equalled around 110 hours of minimum-wage earnings for another customer, and a $5,200 refund matched 13 weeks of another customer's Jobseeker payment.' A spokesperson for ANZ said the bank had taken a 'deliberate decision to expand our remediation payments, leading to a larger cohort of customers being refunded fees and interest'.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
WA news LIVE: Man arrested for pushing Perth flight attendant
Latest posts Latest posts 9.33am Man arrested for pushing Perth flight attendant The 59-year-old man will front court today, accused of assaulting an airline crew member at Perth Airport two weeks ago. The Australian Federal Police alleged the Queensland man refused a crew member's instruction to take his seat as a flight to Brisbane was preparing for departure because he wanted to use the bathroom. The man then allegedly pushed the crew member, and the incident was reported to the flight captain, who requested the AFP attend the gate and remove the man from the plane. AFP officers removed the man – who was allegedly uncooperative with police – from the plane and he was charged with one count of assaulting a crew member. 9.33am Across the nation and around the world Here's what's making news across the country and around the world: Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is under threat from an emerging populist bloc on her party's right flank, threatening splinters on its contentious net zero emissions pledge, woke culture and immigration as MPs fear a further slump in the polls. The incoming chief of US Navy operations has warned the US will not be able to fulfil its AUKUS obligations without doubling its submarine-building capacity, in a fresh sign of the doubts over whether the agreement can be honoured. The US president has called on Israel to speed up the flow of food to Gaza and set a new timeframe for Russia to end the war in Ukraine, intensifying his demands on both global flashpoints. 9.33am Today's weather 9.32am Welcome to our live news blog Good morning readers, and welcome to our live news blog for Tuesday, July 29. Making headlines today, a community group lobbying for an end to plans for a $217 million racetrack and amphitheatre on the Burswood peninsula has hit back at claims the development would be a boon to the local economy, pointing to similar developments in other states they say proved the opposite. 'As the Cook government moves to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to host a V8 Supercars event in Burswood Park, we must learn from the hard lessons of other cities,' Save Burswood Park Alliance co-chair Robin Harvey said. Meanwhile, the trial of accused fraudster Chris Marco He is accused of creating an 'entire make-believe' suite of invite-only investment opportunities to defraud his clients of $36.5 million.
