The NSW Minns Labor Government recently introduced a bill to ban privately arranged and funded electronic monitoring for people on bail.

It’s a move aimed at increasing public safety, but one that will have minimal impact on keeping track of these alleged offenders in the Western Plains.

The Bail Amendment (Ban on Private Electronic Monitoring) Bill 2025 will mean people on bail can no longer pay private providers for GPS ankle monitors.

A three-month transition period will allow existing arrangements to continue while the courts reassess each case.

The proposed changes follow concerns over the justice system’s ability to regulate private providers, particularly after the collapse of BailSafe earlier this year.

The private company ceased operations without notice, leaving dozens of people unmonitored, prompting a review by the Department of Communities and Justice.

But the reform will have little effect in regional NSW, including the Western Plains.

Superintendent Gerard Lawson is District Commander of the Central North Police District and based in Bourke.

“It doesn't really affect us at all, because we don't have any contractors for that purpose out here,” Superintendent Lawson said.

“Out here it's all done by government services.

"Community Corrections are the ones who fit the ankle monitors and have a supply of them, and they do the monitoring and the alerts.

"This change doesn't really have any direct impact on us or about how we do business.”

Changes in legislation around ankle monitoring will not cause concern in the Western Plains according to Superintendent Gerard Lawson.

The bill’s intention is to remove the option for offenders to choose and pay for their own monitoring, which can currently be used as a means to argue for bail.

This loophole has become a point of concern for legal experts, particularly where court orders depend on unregulated, privately run systems.

“Really, it's amazing they used subcontractors in the first place,” Lawson said.

“Particularly as wearing an ankle monitor is an imposed order by the court.”

When asked by Western Plains App if an offender could choose their own provider when using a subcontractor, Superintendent Lawson said it was possible.

 “They still can ask.

"High-risk DV offenders who might not otherwise get bail can make application to the court to have that as a condition of their bail,” he said.

“There is that provision in New South Wales, but there's a lot of governance around it."

The ban will not affect electronic monitoring that is overseen by Corrective Services NSW, including accused serious domestic violence offenders captured by the Government’s bail reforms introduced

last year. 

Corrective Services NSW will continue to manage mandatory electronic monitoring for people accused of serious domestic violence offences and offenders on parole. 

Attorney General Michael Daley said the changes are necessary for public safety.

“Community safety is this Government’s top concern which is why we are banning privately funded electronic monitoring," he said.

"We are not satisfied with the regulation of privately funded electronic monitoring arrangements and recognise the system needs to change.

This ban includes transitional arrangements to enable those currently subject to private electronic monitoring to be brought quickly back before the courts.”

For now, in places like the Western Plains, it’s largely a matter of legislative housekeeping.