Rachel spoke on the government’s Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025. This bill addresses multiple areas of reform within the justice system. Rachel supported this bill, as it extends the operation of the County Court Drug and Alcohol Treatment Court; improves the fines system in Victoria, and; expands penalties for bestiality crimes.
Thursday the 19th of March 2026,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
I rise to speak on the Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025 on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria. Like any omnibus bill, this bill makes many changes of various sizes in a wide range of areas across our justice system. To say that this bill has been a journey is probably a bit of an understatement. What was once your standard omnibus bill then included amendments to what happens with the Director of Public Prosecutions as well as IBAC amendments, and it seems that those will now no longer be part of this bill. So what I will do in my contribution today is just focus on the parts of the bill that I know will be established and substantiated today.
I will begin by discussing what passed in the lower house. This amendment provides that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is not required for police to commence a prosecution for certain criminal vilification offences, unless the accused is under 18. This will apply retrospectively from September last year. However, we know that this part of the bill is now redundant. In the face of delays of the passage of this bill, the government successfully passed the Crimes Amendment Bill 2026 last sitting week in a rush to make these changes. As I said in my contribution on the crimes bill, I was proud to be part of the changes to the anti-vilification laws passed by this Parliament. We supported the Greens amendment for prosecutorial consent because it provided real and necessary checks and balances on these new powers, making sure that they were not misused by police to, among other things, crack down on peaceful protesters. The change as it is before us today, and as it was already passed in the Crimes Amendment Bill, is and was unjustified. It lacks evidence and is clear political posturing.
Before turning to the substance of the bill, I would also like to acknowledge the amendments moved by Mr Limbrick to introduce a prohibition on people charged with sexual offences working in the sex industry. This actually took me back a little bit to my former role as the general manager of Eros Association, where I did a lot of work around sex work law reform. While I do appreciate that these amendments may be well intentioned, stakeholders were not consulted on this prior to circulation. It is so important that sex workers and those that represent sex workers speak to their own experiences, particularly when it comes to regulations and laws that impact the work that they do. Those that I have spoken to are concerned about the implications of such an amendment and how it would treat sex work differently to other adult personal services. The decriminalisation of sex work was shaped by the understanding that sex work is work. This understanding, alongside the aim of reducing stigma and harm, would also be undermined by subjecting the industry to separate criminalisation. We would like to see this issue considered as part of the broader review of the decriminalisation of sex work, and we will be asking questions during the committee stage to seek assurance that this review will commence as soon as possible.
Turning now to the substance of the bill, it was great to see that this bill will extend the operation of the County Court Drug and Alcohol Treatment Court, which would otherwise cease operating within the next month. These kinds of courts have been proven to be effective in supporting offenders to address the causes of addiction, reduce recidivism and reduce harm. As someone who recently had the experience of finding out that I was the subject of a fine that had been lost in translation – can you believe, a fine from 2011 that I did not know about – it was also great to see that the changes in this bill to improve the fines system in Victoria are going to have a positive impact in that respect. In particular I was pleased to see the removal of the requirement for traffic or toll fine recipients to meet certain evidential requirements when applying for an extension of time to deal with the fine on the grounds that they were unaware that it had even been issued, much like me in my circumstance. Anyone can miss a fine for a number of reasons. Those without a fixed address, dealing with mental health issues or with English as a second language are often at greater risk and are unaware that their fine may have been served. While our fines system could very much still be improved, this change is a positive step in the right direction. A simple fix would be just that when you go to register your licence, it pops up that you may have fines. That would be easy.
Before concluding, I would also like to commend the changes in this bill to expand the existing bestiality offence and introduce indictable offences that prohibit producing, distributing, possessing and accessing bestiality or animal crush material for a sexual or sadistic purpose. Again, reflecting on my time at Eros Association, this has been a long time coming. It is something that I myself have advocated for reform on, both federally and at a state-based level, and I am so proud of the work. I would like to acknowledge the tireless work of my colleague Georgie Purcell in securing these changes. It is shameful that these laws did not exist already, but this wrong will now be fixed thanks to Georgie’s advocacy.
While this bill has been hotly contested, we expected these contested elements would not be dealt with today for various reasons, so what is left for us to consider are a series of improvements across the justice system. Accordingly, we can support this bill.
Related:
- Government bill seeks to cut integral oversight bodies – Rachel Payne
- Entities Legislation Amendment Bill: Impact on Victoria’s mental health system – Rachel Payne
- Crimes Amendment Bill 2026 enhances police powers to prosecute protestors – Rachel Payne
- Expand IBAC powers to stamp out political corruption – Rachel Payne
