The Victorian Premier has said changes to bail laws in Victoria after the death of Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson were, in hindsight, "wrong".

Little more than a year after a concerted campaign by Ms Nelson's family led to wholesale bail law changes, the Labor government has caved in to pressure from some sections of the media, the opposition, and the powerful police union and will significantly toughen the laws.

"It is absolutely clear to me and to the Victorian community that the current law laws are not just not meeting community expectations, they are not dealing with this repeat pattern of offending we are seeing across our community," Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters on Wednesday.

The Premier said "more needed to be done to toughen our bail laws, to meet those community expectations and to get these repeat offenders off our streets", before adding it was why the government was "bringing forward these tough new bail laws that are making sweeping changes to our bail system that will put the focus on reducing the risk of people offending and reoffending on bail, reducing that risk across our system".

The comprehensive overhaul of Victoria's bail system means remanding youth offenders in custody will no longer be a last resort, with community safety now becoming the "overarching principle" when deciding on bail for both children and adults.

"No one wants to see kids on remand," Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny said, "but we know there are young offenders and other offenders out there who are committing the very worst types of crime that is driving community fear".

When the bail law changes were first flagged last month, Veronica's mother, Aunty Donna Nelson, said: "The Chief Commissioner and the Attorney General at the time looked me in my eyes and promised to make bail conditions better, because of what Veronica and my family suffered."

"Where are those promises now?"

National Indigenous Times revealed on Tuesday, former Police Commissioner Shane Patton told Aunty Donna the old bail laws contributed to her daughter being incarcerated, which ultimately led to her death. However, the Premier told reporters on Wednesday in retrospect, the bail changes were "wrong".

"So, in terms of the 2023 changes I do acknowledge, we got it wrong and I'm standing here as the premier today having listened to the Victorian community. It's clear to me, it's clear to everyone in the Victorian community but the current laws do not reflect community expectations," she said.

"What occurred with Veronica Nelson was an absolute tragedy, an absolute tragedy…the target here is on the serious, the worst of offences, bringing in higher tests for the worst of offences, whilst also understanding that we have a responsibility to keep some of those safeguards in place from 2023 to support some of the more vulnerable members of our community."

Ms Nelson, a Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri, and Yorta Yorta woman, died in custody in 2020 in a "vomit ridden" prison cell from a rare gastrointestinal condition – known as Wilkie's syndrome - along with malnutrition and opiate withdrawal. She had been arrested and denied bail for alleged shoplifting.

An inquest into her death heard Coroner Simon McGregor describe the then-bail laws as an "unmitigated disaster".

He said the Bail Act had a "discriminatory impact on First Nations people, resulting in grossly disproportionate rates of [Indigenous people] remanded in custody, the most egregious of which affects alleged offenders who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander women".

The new changes will also see it become a separate crime to commit an indictable offence while on bail, previously scrapped last year in a raft of changes.

For people who commit serious and violent crimes on bail repeatedly, a new test would be created where a judge or magistrate must be satisfied to a high degree of probability they won't reoffend.

The Premier said the new laws "will see more people on remand," and expects them to pass Parliament next week "should the parliament choose to act with the same urgency that the government have and that the community are demanding".

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), the former president of Liberty Victoria, Michael Stanton, said: "The duplicity of this Government fronting Yoorrook and now desperately introducing these draconian bail reforms is just breathtaking. Including removing the principle of detention being a last resort for children? This will result in deaths in custody. It's a disgrace."

In reply, Ali Besiroglu, the head of legal services at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said: "300 kids, that's it. Overhaul the entirety of the bail system for 300 children (with 25 kids being responsible for a quarter of those offences). Unbelievable!"

Youth crime has been under intense focus in the past 12 months, with crimes allegedly committed by youths increasing to their highest levels in 15 years. The number of alleged youth offender incidents rose to 23,810 — a 16.9 per cent increase year on year.

Privately, several government figures and legal experts have expressed concern at the decision, fearful it will only perpetuate trauma and cycles of crime.

Others, however, have said whilst it was a hard decision, the optics of youth crime on the front pages of newspapers every day was too difficult to ignore.

54 reasons Victoria Director, Gai Campbell, said the new laws would fail to make the community safer.

"We know what works, and it's not punitive crackdowns like scrapping remand as a last resort or criminalising breach of bail for children. This isn't about being soft on crime, this is being smart on crime. It means investing in trauma-informed early intervention and prevention programs that actually reduce offending," she said.