After being found to have breached prisoners’ rights to one hour of fresh air a day, the Victorian Government is looking to remove that right in the name of operational flexibility.

Everyone deserves to see the sky.

That shouldn’t be controversial, yet the Victorian Government is pushing legislation through parliament to remove the requirement that Victorians in prison get at least one hour of fresh air each day.

They are framing the Corrections Amendment Bill 2026 as a debate about prison management, staffing and operations. But there is a bigger question at stake here: what should happen when a court finds a government has broken its own laws, caused harm and breached the human rights of its own citizens?

The Victorian Supreme Court found that some people in prison were not receiving the open-air access required by law. The court also found that this treatment was incompatible with the right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty.

That should have led the Victorian Government to act swiftly to fix the problem. Instead, the Government wants to change the law. They cite the need for operational flexibility in........

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