In a televised face-off, the premier clashes with Matthew Guy over law and order

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Daniel Andrews, the Victorian premier, has been forced to defend the decision of police to bail the man who committed the fatal Bourke Street attack in an emotive leadership debate with the state opposition leader, Matthew Guy.

In a rowdy exchange, Guy claimed that the killer, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who was on bail for a driving offence at the time, would have been remanded in custody under tough new bail laws proposed by the Coalition. He suggested that the attack, which led to in the fatal stabbing of the Melbourne restaurant identity Sisto Malaspina, would not have occurred.

“He would not have been [on bail] under the laws we propose,” Guy said.

Malaspina, 74, was farewelled at a state funeral on Tuesday.

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Andrews tightened the state’s bail laws after the first fatal Bourke Street attack in January 2017, resulting in a reported 60% increase in the number of people held on remand, lengthy delays for court hearings, and reports from lawyers that people with no criminal history were being denied bail for lower-level offences that were now categorised as high risk.

But he told the audience of the Sky News and Herald Sun people’s forum at the Frankston Arts Centre on Wednesday night that Guy’s proposals, which would see bail automatically revoked for anyone who committed an offence while on bail, were going too far.

“The police bailed that individual because he had no history of violence,” Andrews said. “He had a court date in January for driving unlicensed. There would be many people who have that.”

Under the Coalition’s proposal, he said: “There won’t be any more hospitals built, there won’t be any more Tafes built, you will be building prisons and that’s all.”

Guy did not explain how the state would handle the increase in prison population caused by further tightening bail laws but on this emotive issue the detail was lost.

More than 970,000 Victorians have already voted via prepoll, with two days to go before election day. The Victorian Electoral Commission has said it will release all prepoll results at 6pm on Saturday — on current predictions, that could be as much as 20% of the vote.

The people’s forum audience awarded the overall debate to Andrews, with 49 of the 100 attendees saying he had carried the day, compared with 33 who supported Guy. Eighteen remained undecided.

Andrews was awarded more frequent bouts of applause for policies including his promise to establish a royal commission into mental health; his impassioned defence of the Safe Schools program; a defence of school funding; and his closing plea to the audience to give him four more years.

Audience questions focused on healthcare, Tafe funding, state school funding, police resourcing and infrastructure. Key campaign issues for the Coalition — cost-of-living pressures, power prices, the so-called red shirts rort and sky rail — were not raised.

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Guy gave an emotional response to a question about neonatal intensive care beds, explaining that his first child was born at just 27 weeks, when his wife, Renae, was interstate and he had to fly up to meet her.

He rejected suggestions he would cut state school funding, saying: “Why would I want to do that? My children are in the state school system, I am a product of the state school system, which is rare among politicians.”

But he said he would accept the federal government’s education funding offer, while the Labor premier said he would not accept the federal government’s revised Gonski package – a substantial cut on what was previously promised.

The debate was held in Frankston because it is the state’s most marginal electorate.