Victorian informant laws stall as Greens flag concerns

Controversial reforms to overhaul Victoria Police's use of police informants after the Lawyer X scandal have stalled in the upper house. 

The Legislative Council was scheduled to debate the Human Source Management Bill on Wednesday ahead of an expected vote.

But the Greens still hold concerns over the bill and are not in a position to support it despite Labor drafting changes to clarify the threshold for police to use lawyers as informants.

"The Greens share many of the concerns raised by legal experts including the lack of adequate protections for children who may be registered as reportable human sources," the party's justice spokeswoman Katherine Copsey said.

"We're also concerned about the lack of effective independent oversight or power to limit the recruitment of certain individuals being registered as reportable human sources."

They want more time to continue negotiations, effectively halting the legislation's progress.

The bill acts on 25 recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants after it investigated police's handling of former gangland lawyer-turned-police informant Nicola Gobbo.

But it would still give police discretion to register children, lawyers, journalists, doctors, priests, parliamentarians and judges as human sources, raising the red flags for various legal groups.

Commissioner Margaret McMurdo found the use of Ms Gobbo as a secret informer was a "systemic failure" and police should have disclosed her status as a human source.

On Wednesday, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes confirmed the government had drafted changes to clarify the threshold for the police chief commissioner to register a lawyer as an informant.

The police commissioner would have to be satisfied there is an "imminent risk" to a person's or community safety and convinced there are no alternative sources, she said.

The Supreme Court would also have to sign off on a lawyer's registration as a human source, creating an "extremely high" threshold.

Ms Symes said former justice McMurdo was happy with the additional safeguards after speaking with the government on Monday.

In her final report, Ms McMurdo recommended the police boss be legally obligated to consider formal legal advice before registering a human source with the intention to obtain or disseminate confidential or privileged information from that person.

Law Institute of Victoria president Tania Wolff said the bill that passes must properly respond to the reasons for the royal commission, without creating a framework for lawyers to be used to inform on their clients.

"This is an important piece of legislation. It is important for the community that we get it right," she said in a statement after the bill stalled.

The opposition plans to move amendments to completely outlaw a lawyer informing against one of their clients, if and when the bill returns for debate.

It would still allow lawyers to inform about criminal activities not related to clients.

"Our view is that any bill that allows the Lawyer X scandal to happen again is a bad bill, and we won't be supporting it," shadow attorney-general Michael O'Brien said.

Without the backing of the coalition, Labor will need the support of at least six upper house crossbenchers for the bill to pass.

The Victorian government has been contacted for comment.