Queensland’s Labor Opposition will wave through the government’s controversial bail crackdown, despite significant concerns about the proposed laws and their impact on the justice system.
A Crisafulli LNP-controlled government committee published its report on the “breach bail, go to jail” bill on Friday, recommending it be passed with no changes after a raft of major stakeholders urged caution or change.
The move comes at the end of a trying week for Labor leader Steven Miles, who has been facing publicly aired internal grumblings about his leadership direction halfway into the electoral cycle and lagging poll numbers.
Aimed at making it harder for people charged with specific offences while on bail to be released into the community, the bill will apply a mandatory 12-month minimum jail sentence to those guilty of the new related offence.
The government conceded the changes will heap further pressure on the state’s already under-strain prison system, while arguing the change is needed. Critics have warned it will likely only further drive offending.
Queensland’s Bar Association also told the committee the bill would remove incentives for people to plead guilty, leading to delays across the entire court system, as well as a stricter bail test currently facing a High Court challenge.
Despite Labor MPs on the committee writing a statement of reservation to sit alongside the committee report, reiterating these and other concerns, the statement’s first paragraphs reveal the party will not vote against the bill.
“To be clear, the Queensland Labor Opposition will support the Breach Bail, Go to Jail and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026,” the statement signed by MPs Di Farmer, Peter Russo and Melissa McMahon said.
They noted that the opposition supported the initial adult time for adult crime “slogan” bills introduced by the government, saying the fact the LNP was back for a ninth similar justice bill “is an admission that their repeated attempts have failed”.
“It must be said that these laws have the potential to break the system without proper and careful planning.”
Despite this, the Opposition did symbolically vote against the most recent “adult time” iteration, when paired by the government with reversal of three-strike drug diversion laws and expansion of police powers to deal with “antisocial behaviour”.
Prior to this, Labor had faced internal threats its youth arm would “speak out” against MPs if the party did not uphold “Left values” and vote against adult time laws.
Maiwar Greens MP Michael Berkman, also a member of the committee, wrote a dissenting report saying the idea that the hardline measures would address offending was “predicated on the LNP’s wilful ignorance and delusion”.
Public sentiment around the government’s crime response has soured across the past year, despite the LNP’s suggestions its election promised efforts are starting to work.
ABS data has shown victim numbers, a metric to which Premier David Crisafulli has tied his leadership, were already falling across the election year – and fell further across 2025.
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