Lutchmedial: I'd join fight to strike down Bail Bill

OPPOSITION Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial was so adamantly opposed to the continuation of a mandatory 120-day denial of bail for very serious crimes, that she vowed to be part of any court action to strike down the bill as unconstitutional.

She was in the Senate on Wednesday speaking in the continuation of debate on the Bail (Amendment) (Extension of Duration) Bill 2022 which the Senate later denied a requisite special majority by voting 18 senators yes, 11 voting no, and one abstaining.

The bill sought to give another year to the three-year sunset clause of the Bail (Amendment) Act 2019, which denied bail to suspects of serious crime who have had a past conviction for a crime described as serious.

The 2019 act said, "A court shall not grant bail to a person who, on or after the commencement of this act, is charged with an offence listed in Part II of the First Schedule, and has been previously convicted of an offence which is punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten years or more."

Lutchmedial said the proposal for a law decided by legislators to deny judges the freedom to make decisions on whether to grant or withhold bail to a suspect was unlawful. Further, the blanket denial of bail to individuals merely charged, but not convicted of a particular offence, was also unethical.

She said while people might casually think 120 days was not a long time, she once spent 30 minutes in a jail cell, in the course of her duties as an attorney, commenting, "It was the longest half-hour of my life."

Lutchmedial said it was "illegal, unconstitutional and a violation of the separation of powers" for the Legislature (Parliament) to interfere in the exercise of the Judiciary's powers.

She said it was unreasonable for Parliament to legislate-away something that was a core judicial function.

"By bringing this bill, they are trying to camouflage their abject failure in dealing with the crime situation."

She said the Government was also failing on education and in running the economy, all of which contribute to the rise in crime.

"So as they fail on this side and they fail on that side, they come to ask us to pass an unconstitutional piece of legislation.

"This will be challenged and, I dare say and God so help me, I will be part of the challenge to this piece of law if it is passed today. And it will be struck down."

Replying to a senator who had earlier asked what was different now to 2019, she said, "What has changed is that the court has ruled on the issue of bail being a judicial function and it is not Parliament's place to interfere with it."

Lamenting a lack of anti-crime initiatives, Lutchmedial saw the bill as the Government's admission of failure and intellectual bankruptcy. "They are ready to give up.

"The Government's solution is that once a person is accused by the police of committing a certain list of offences, any of those offences, you must throw them in the prison and lock them away."

Saying the government wants to take over the Judiciary's role, as stated in the Bail Act (section 6), she said there has been no evidence of irresponsible judicial officers granting bail to people.

She said Parliament had once made "a huge constitutional concession" to the Government by passing the 2019 act.

"The fact that gang warfare and killings are today out of control is tangible evidence of the failure of the Bail (Amendment) Act 2019 to deliver on its promises.

"We are worse off than where we were. We are heading to 600 murders for this year, with this law in place."

Lutchmedial said the Government's conversation was about bail but should have been about guns. She recalled a man being denied bail who had then lost his job and his marriage, who went out to re-offend.

"The prison is the place where gang recruitment takes place."