On 10 September 2014 the Attorney General asked the Sentencing Council to consider proposals to make amendments to the Bail Act 2013 (NSW). In September 2014 Parliament passed the Bail Amendment Bill 2014 (NSW), which introduced categories of offences for which bail must be refused unless an accused can "show cause" why his or her detention is not justified.
The Council provided the Attorney General with the report, Bail: Additional show cause offences (PDF, 341.5 KB) which was released on 28 August 2015.
In response to our recommendation the Bail Amendment Act 2015 (NSW) sch 1 [2]-[3] provided that a person would be required to show cause when charged with a serious violent offence if previously convicted of a similar offence in any jurisdiction. The Act was assented to on 5 November 2015 and commenced on 6 December 2016.
The Council was asked to consider suggested additions to the categories of offences for which the accused must "show cause" before bail can be granted, specifically, where an accused person is charged with a serious indictable offence committed:
As part of this review, the Council considered:
In addition, the Council has been asked to undertake an ongoing role in monitoring and reviewing the show cause categories. In particular, the Attorney asked that the Council consider expanding the definition of serious personal violence offence in section 16B of the Bail Act 2013 to include offences under the law of the Commonwealth, another State or a Territory or of another country that are similar to the defined serious personal violence offences in NSW.
The Attorney also asked the Council to consider the breadth of the show cause requirement applying to all serious indictable offences committed while on bail.
27 May 2024
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the ongoing connection Aboriginal people have to this land and recognise Aboriginal people as the original custodians of this land.