De­spite calls from the Op­po­si­tion for broad­er con­sul­ta­tion, the Gov­ern­ment says it is mov­ing ahead with amend­ments to the Bail Act, in­sist­ing the changes are nec­es­sary to pro­tect the in­tegri­ty of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge yes­ter­day made it clear there would be no con­sul­ta­tions with the Law As­so­ci­a­tion and no re­fer­ral of the bill to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee.

Sturge told the Sen­ate the amend­ments are aimed at fix­ing what he de­scribed as a dan­ger­ous loop­hole cre­at­ed by the 2024 Bail Amend­ment Act, one he said has al­lowed ac­cused mur­der­ers to ap­ply for bail with­out prov­ing ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances.