Laws to jail for at least six months anyone who assaults an emergency worker on duty are expected to pass Victoria’s Parliament on Tuesday, as Labor and the Coalition pursue tougher justice policies ahead of the state election.

But community lawyers and health workers have made an eleventh-hour plea to the Andrews government to scrap mandatory sentencing for attacks on emergency workers, arguing the move will cost lives and set back recent progress on family violence.

The group warned some victims of family violence would no longer call for help for fear of condemning a partner or family member to jail.

“It is only a matter of time until a person dies who did not call for help when their partner was abusing them or their adult child was in a psychotic state,” Belinda Lo, chief executive of the Federation of Community Legal Centres said in a letter to Premier Daniel Andrews.

The legal centres have warned the government the laws will undermine progress on family violence by reimposing “a culture of silence among victims”.