In a move that will shock absolutely no one who has been paying attention, the Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has announced that convicted rapists will no longer be able to use suppression orders to hide their identities. The government, he said, is committed to 'closing every loophole' that accused people 'abuse and exploit' in the state's courts.

Carroll and the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, made the pledge to amend the Open Courts Act if re-elected in November. 'First and foremost, we are going to stop suppression orders being used to protect convicted rapists. Suppression orders were designed to protect victim-survivors, not convicted rapists,' Carroll told reporters, in case anyone had forgotten the original purpose.

Kilkenny said further changes would be guided by a review currently examining the use of interim suppression orders, their length, and the grounds on which they can be granted - including mental health reasons. 'That review is under way right now, and as we've announced today a re-elected Carroll Labor government will ensure that we make amendments to our Open Courts Act so that we are closing every loophole used by high-profile accused and convicted persons [regarding] the use of suppression orders,' she said, adding that 'justice must be open' but there must be a balance with the right to a fair trial.

The announcement comes after the identities of perpetrators in several prominent rape cases were suppressed for significant periods. Ralph Carr, a prominent entertainment manager, was convicted last month of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, but his identity was suppressed on mental health grounds for almost three years - until after his conviction. Tom Silvagni, son of AFL footballer Stephen Silvagni, had his proceedings suppressed for 18 months on similar grounds; his identity was only made public after his conviction in December.

In both cases, the accused relied on psychiatrist evidence that the order was necessary to protect their safety, as they could be at risk of self-harm if identified in the media. The 2013 laws allow orders on safety grounds, but alleged offenders have only recently started arguing that suppression was necessary to prevent them from harming themselves. Robert Clark, the former Coalition attorney general who introduced the laws, has noted the provision was designed to protect people from threats of violence, 'not about claims of psychological distress'.

The need for an overhaul was discussed at a roundtable at the University of Melbourne on Monday, attended by lawyers, journalists, and academics, prompted partly by the Silvagni and Carr cases. Shadow attorney general James Newbury attended and said the Coalition was 'going to stop the misuse of suppression orders, full stop'. 'Labor has dragged their feet and has reconfirmed today they just want to kick the can down the road again. Victoria is the suppression order capital of Australia and if we are elected, it will be fixed,' he told Guardian Australia.

The Melbourne Press Club (MPC), also in attendance, said the announcements were a step in the right direction but didn't go far enough. MPC president Michael Bachelard called for a broader review before the election into the law governing cases, including the test for granting suppression orders. Associate Prof Jason Bosland, who organised the event, warned that suppression orders made in circumstances that don't meet community expectations have a 'corrosive effect' on public confidence and 'ultimately undermine the rule of law'.

On Tuesday, the government also introduced a bill that scraps 'good character' references at sentencing, following a similar move in New South Wales in February. The bill criminalises coercive control as a stand-alone offence, strengthens family violence intervention orders, and amends the Equal Opportunity Act to make 'subjection to family violence' a protected attribute, making it unlawful to discriminate against someone experiencing or having experienced family violence.

Carroll and Kilkenny framed the election as a choice between Labor, which 'always stand with victim-survivors', and a Liberal government aligned with One Nation, echoing Pauline Hanson's widely condemned comments that family violence is a 'two-way street'. Kilkenny warned that a government led by Jess Wilson and One Nation 'puts at risk all of the reforms that we have made and that we are introducing today to put victim-survivors at the centre'.