Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Youth justice system

Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (12:40): Victorians deserve answers regarding the current crisis engulfing our youth justice system. The government continues to talk up all the wonderful things it is supposedly doing in youth justice. However, when you look at what has occurred recently, it is very plain that the assertions that have been put over a long period of time now, in particular by a series of outstanding journalists at the ABC but also by many members of this place, are entirely true. We recently saw a breakout at Malmsbury, a breakout that occurred via the roof. I have spoken on the record here in this place and in the media over some time about the dreadful issues when it comes to the fabric of our two existing youth justice facilities at Parkville and Malmsbury. It surprised nobody who understands anything about our youth justice system that some years ago now the government was told through an internal report that the exact issues that we saw occur recently were likely to occur and to facilitate a breakout. When these questions were put to the Premier the other day, the Premier said he would follow up. He did not follow up. He bumped this to the new Minister for Youth Justice, and when journalists went to the youth justice minister to get answers to the questions that the Premier promised answers to in his initial press conference, surprise, surprise they said, ‘No comment’. It is a scandal that years ago reports from this facility were put to the government specifically highlighting the issues at play with this breakout. Victorians deserve to know: why were those reports ignored? Why has there been chronic underfunding of these facilities? Why has so little been done to rehabilitate some of the most traumatised and disadvantaged young people in our state? (Time expired)