A push to make it harder for people alleged to have assaulted frontline community service providers to get bail would pave the way for miscarriages of justice and exacerbate overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the ACT's prisons, the Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury believes.
The opposition spokesman on police, Jeremy Hanson, has introduced a bill to the ACT Legislative Assembly that would remove the presumption for bail if a person is alleged to have assaulted a frontline community service worker, which includes police officers and paramedics.
But Mr Rattenbury will tell the Assembly on Wednesday the reforms proposed by Mr Hanson were based on a mischaracterisation of the bail system, which is not designed to punish people.
"This bill is unlikely to achieve its goals of promoting safety, and is likely to cause significant harm to welfare of individuals, to erode the integrity of the justice system and to marginalise some of the most vulnerable members of our community," Mr Rattenbury will say.
"The amendments proposed would unreasonably restrict the rights of a person charged with this offence and potentially pave the way for miscarriages of justice, including by incentivising early guilty pleas to avoid being remanded in custody. There is also no evidence that those charged with 'assault frontline community service provider' have a greater risk of reoffending or failing to appear in court such to justify the removal of the presumption for bail."
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Mr Rattenbury, who is leader of the Greens, will tell the Assembly of his concern the bill will unfairly target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and others, including those with mental illness.
"Much like the Canberra Liberals' stance on climate action, they're for the better future but against every single step that gets us there. You cannot be in favour of reducing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the justice system while at the same time seeking to exacerbate it," he will say.
The government will not support the bill because there was no evidence it would improve community safety and it could exacerbate prison overrepresentation, Mr Rattenbury will say.
The Bail Act 1992 provides a presumption of bail, except when people are charged with serious crimes, including manslaughter, grievous bodily harm, rape, aggravated robbery and burglary and some serious drugs offences.
There is a presumption against bail for murder and certain serious drug offences.
