Northern Victoria Region
Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:48): (583) My constituency question today is for the Minister for Youth Justice. After reading a Herald Sun article quoting the figures of people reoffending while on bail – more than 500 jailable crimes per week committed this year alone – a concerned constituent has reached out relating to the disproportionate number of children and teenagers represented within this group. The article quoted that a group of 80 children were charged with 610 counts of committing an indictable offence on bail in the year to June, averaging 6.7 each. Apparently there were also 440 teens aged from 15 to 17 charged 2052 times with committing an indictable offence while on bail in the same period. My constituents would like to know: does the minister still intend to raise the age of criminal responsibility?