The Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, is facing criticism from his own party for claiming he was visiting his cyclone-affected parents last week despite also going on a cruise.
The timing of the holiday meant the newly installed Liberal leader was absent when Labor announced tough new bail laws after months of feverish debate over what some have labelled a “crime crisis” in Victoria.
Battin had been a vocal proponent of a bail laws crackdown, having claimed Victoria was “facing a crime crisis that has never happened anywhere in this country at this level”.
His office had told reporters he was on planned leave last week, postponed from January. On Saturday Battin fronted a press conference, in which he said he visited Queensland to see his parents, who had been affected by Cyclone Alfred.
But the Herald Sun on Tuesday revealed Battin also took a four-day cruise on Royal Caribbean’s ship Quantum of the Seas, sailing to Airlie Beach from Brisbane.
Several of Battin’s Liberal colleagues have since told Guardian Australia they only learned about the holiday from the media report.
“It’s not on the same level as Scomo jetting off to Hawaii during the bushfires but it’s a pretty bad look,” one MP said.
Another Liberal MP said Battin had “failed to capitalise” on the government’s admission it had had “got it wrong” with changes to bail laws made in 2023.
“This should’ve been his moment, but true to our party’s form, we’ve turned what should be a win into an own goal,” they said.
Former opposition leader John Pesutto, who Battin successfully ousted in a spill in December, made a subtle dig at his successor’s trip.
“I didn’t get a chance to take any leave. I worked pretty hard but I’ll let Brad handle that,” Pesutto told reporters as he arrived at parliament on Tuesday. “He’s doing a good job and he’s holding the government to account.”
Battin admitted he should have been more upfront about his trip, saying he didn’t regret spending time with his family, but that he should have communicated his plans with colleagues.
“I took four nights away up in Queensland. I did take a cruise. I wasn’t trying to be evasive. [Had I] been more upfront with it, it wouldn’t have been a bigger story as it is today. I have to take a lesson from that,” he said.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, said a cruise ship wasn’t her “preferred method” for a holiday and maintained she was always transparent about her leave arrangements.
She said parliament “won’t be leaving” this week until Labor’s bail law reforms are passed, but revealed the changes would be rolled out in two stages.
The first stage, to be introduced to parliament on Tuesday, will scrap the principle of remand only as a “last resort” for accused youth offenders. In its place, community safety would become the “overarching principle” when deciding bail for children and adults.
The bill also introduces two bail offences – “committing an indictable offence while on bail for indictable offence” and “breaching of condition of bail”.
The former will only apply to adults, which covers bail breaches that are “more administrative in nature like failing to report or meet curfew”.
Both will be punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment on top of any other sentence imposed.
A range of offences such as armed robbery, aggravated burglary, home invasion and carjacking will also face the tougher bail tests.
Further changes – including a new bail test for serious repeat offenders – will be included in a second bill, later this year.
The government is banking on the Coalition supporting the bill but tensions boiled over when attorney-general, Sonya Kilkenny, failed to provide her counterpart, Michael O’Brien, with a copy of it ahead of a briefing on Monday night.
Kilkenny accused O’Brien of “chucking an absolute tantrum”, while the Liberal MP said the government was “disorganised and arrogant”.
After a subsequent briefing on Tuesday, O’Brien said the opposition wouldn’t “stand in the way” of the bill’s passage through parliament but said the crackdown should go further.
Meanwhile, a rally organised by legal, human rights and First Nations groups will be held outside parliament on Tuesday afternoon to urge the government to “abandon the suite of kneejerk bail law changes”.
