NSW Local Court Magistrates Become Judges and Allowed Justices Cannot Decide Bail

Local Court and Bail Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

11 Nov 2025: Passed by Parliament and signed off by the governor.

This bill kicks in: TBA

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Council

Assent

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Topics

bail procedures children's justice court procedures court system criminal justice criminal procedure government accountability judicial appointments public officials youth justice

Introduced by: Michael Daley MP (ALP); The Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

Magistrates are no longer listed as public officials under the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act.
Authorised justices can no longer make bail decisions.
Authorised justices can now grant or revoke bail even if a court decided otherwise.
Local Court Judges and Children's Judges are now defined as authorised justices for community service orders.
The President of the Children's Court now handles expediting trials and appeals.
Local Court Judges now oversee the seizure of goods under the Crimes Act.
Judges replace magistrates as the authorized officers for forensic procedures and committal proceedings.
The Attorney General and other ministers cannot choose which authorised judge performs a specific task or control how that judge does it. This applies to tasks under the Dedicated Encrypted Criminal Communication Device Prohibition Orders Act 2022.
The Chief Judge of the Local Court cannot hear an appeal in the District Court if they made the original decision while acting as a Local Court judge.
The Local Court offices of Chief Magistrate, Deputy Chief Magistrate, and Magistrate are abolished. These are replaced by the offices of Chief Judge, Deputy Chief Judge, and Judge.
People who were Magistrates, Deputy Chief Magistrates, or the Chief Magistrate are automatically appointed to the new equivalent Judge roles in the Local Court.
The office of Children's Magistrate is abolished and replaced by the office of Children's Judge.

The Debate

What different members said when this bill was debated:

Susan Carter LIB

“On behalf of the Opposition I speak in debate on the Local Court and Bail Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. We have just discussed the Justice Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill, which was a relatively slight offering that did a lot of heavy lifting.”

Official source →

Sue Higginson GRN

“The Greens support the Local Court and Bail Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The bill makes minor amendments and clarifications in line with legislative changes made by this Parliament, including to shift bail decisions from registrars and authorised justices to exclusively judges.”

Official source →

Stephen Lawrence ALP

“I contribute to debate on the Local Court and Bail Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. This question of the renaming of magistrates is an important matter.”

Official source →

Emily Suvaal ALP

“I briefly address some of the matters raised during debate on the bill. The Hon. Susan Carter claimed that the Government was under the impression that removing registrars from making bail decisions could be done through administrative process when passing the Bail and Other Legislation Amendment (Domestic Violence) Act 2024. That is wholly inaccurate.”

Official source →

News articles and press releases

Local Court and Bail Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

Mr MICHAEL DALEY, Attorney General — 2025-09-17

the bill will make minor technical amendments to 14 Acts to give further effect to and clarify the application of section 70A of the Bail Act 2013, which prevents registrars from making bail decisions. The amendments will ensure consistency and clarity across the statute book in relation to bail decision-making. The bill amends relevant legislation to change the title of judicial officers presiding in the Local Court of New South Wales from "magistrate" to "judge". It also introduces amendments to update related titles of judicial officers within the Local Court framework, including Chief Magistrate, Deputy Chief Magistrate, Children’s Magistrate, Chief Industrial Magistrate, Industrial Magistrate and Acting Magistrate.