Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Motions

Youth justice system

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (10:47): This motion should be supported by all sides of the house. I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that:

(a) out-of-control youth crime is jeopardising the safety of Victorian homes and families;

(b) youth crime rates are at their highest in 10 years;

(c) there have been four ministers for youth justice since 2018 overseeing cost blowouts and worsening youth crime outcomes;

(2) expresses concern at Labor’s waste and mismanagement of the youth justice system, notably:

(a) spending more than double New South Wales on detention-based supervision for young people per day;

(b) overseeing more than 70 per cent of young people leaving detention or community-based supervision returning to sentenced supervision within 12 months;

(3) further expresses concern that despite exorbitant funding, Victoria’s youth justice system fails to set young people on the path to rehabilitation;

(4) calls on the Allan Labor government to:

(a) conduct an immediate audit of expenditure on youth crime in Victoria; and

(b) overhaul the youth justice system to improve its capacity to rehabilitate young Victorians and keep our community safe.

Youth crime in Victoria is clearly out of control. It dominates the headlines, it dominates the radios and it also dominates community conversations, particularly in my electorate of Northern Metropolitan Region, and I think it is an indictment on this government. According to recent youth crime data there has been a concerning increasing trend of youth offenders, with alleged offender incidents amongst 10- to 14-year-olds up almost 32 per cent and an increase amongst 15- to 17-year-olds of almost 33 per cent. The rate of alleged offender incidents by 15-year-olds is the worst of any age group.

Instead of addressing the drivers of youth crime, Labor have failed over and over again and failed to act. Unless Labor takes real action to address the causes of crime, including early intervention, prevention and rehabilitation, Victorians will continue to suffer. However, victims, youth advocates and experts worry current outreach programs and diversion plans are not enough to curb youth offending. Former Victoria Police commissioner Kel Glare said there was an absence of effective programs diverting children away from crime and that no plan had been put forward by the government to effectively deal with youth offenders once the age of criminality increases.

Former commissioner for children and young people Bernie Geary said:

I think that if we talk about criminal responsibility, we should be focusing on parents and just coming to grips with how we can best support parents, who don’t seem to be in a lot of cases able to direct their kids away from crime …

As many of you in this place know, I have always tended to spout and advocate for a different approach when it comes to combating the root causes of crime. I mentioned it in my maiden speech in December 2022 and also wrote a chapter on it last year for a book called Markets and Prosperity, edited by Harry Stutchbury and published by Connor Court, which spoke about international examples from around the world of how they are dealing with their crime issues and focusing much more on rehabilitation, particularly of young people, who are at the start of their lives. It costs about $150,000 to keep someone in prison, and we have a situation in Victoria where almost half of people that go into prison end up back there in two years. So wouldn’t you, if you were the government, focus on and use resources on rehabilitation rather than having the taxpayer spend $150,000 a year every year for the rest of their lives to keep a person in prison? Labor have their focus all wrong.

That is why achieving criminal justice reform is so important, but to achieve community support for any reform, community safety always has to be the number one priority. We all want our children to grow up to be productive members of our community – to contribute to our community rather than detract from it – and our youth justice system is inefficient, is costly and fails to set people up on a path to rehabilitation. A young person in detention-based supervision in Victoria costs $5900 per day, more than double the cost of supporting a young person in detention in New South Wales, which is $2759 per day. This investment is ineffective, and our youth justice system does not set people up on a path to rehabilitation. In Victoria more than 70 per cent of young people return to sentenced supervision within 12 months, compared with just 48 per cent in New South Wales. Under Labor, vital crime prevention and justice programs to get young Victorians on the right path have been slashed, and the vast majority of young offenders who leave the youth justice system end up reoffending and are back there within 12 months.

We see in the news today, dropped into the Herald Sun on the front page, that police will get sweeping new powers to strip guns from criminals and stop the sale of machetes to youth gang members. This crackdown on crime will supposedly give police officers the power to stop criminals and stop the sale of machetes to anyone under 18. With Labor it is always a day too late and a dollar short. We called for a ban – for machetes to be classified as prohibited weapons. Labor seem to only want to move them to being controlled weapons, and they have only done it to age 18, whereas 24 would be a more appropriate age. I struggle to think of people – and there are exemptions – that would need a machete, particularly young people, for domestic purposes. You can talk about gardening and everything else, but anyone who knows anyone who is a gardener knows that most of it is done either by electronic means, diesel fuel or other machinery rather than machetes. So the Allan government has once again been exposed as flat-footed when it comes to youth crime. They are supposedly moving to introduce legislation today. The delay has seen machetes continue to be sold to youth and used in violent crimes, with police not having the powers to proactively remove the weapons from the street. The delay has allowed retailers to continue to sell this violent weapon to kids under 18 and gang members across the state.

We actually introduced a bill in the lower house to amend the Control of Weapons Act 1990 to ensure machete possession would be banned by making it a prohibited weapon. Once again Labor seem to be having a look at our ideas and making their own changes and putting through a sort of copy. I was watching the lower house debate at the time, and I went back and read Hansard because I could have sworn that a lot of members of the Labor Party were actually quite critical of our approach, quite critical of our helpful suggestion, which was backed by the Police Association Victoria and which was backed by a number of experts. So I went back and looked at Hansard. The member for South Barwon actually described our helpful suggestion and introduction of the bill on machetes as a juvenile political stunt. That is what he thought. I wonder whether he thinks today’s news and today’s bill are also juvenile political stunts. The member for Laverton also called it a political stunt, and the member for Greenvale called it fundamentally unserious. ‘Fundamentally unserious’ must be what he thinks of his Minister for Police. I very much doubt locals in Greenvale, Roxburgh Park, Attwood, Meadow Heights and Craigieburn would agree with Mr Walters’s assessment of crime in the northern suburbs, particularly machete crime. They can have a go all they want at proposals, but then when they come back with a similar proposal and take up an idea, I think it is pretty fair that those members apologise. I think it is pretty fair for their communities to know what their members have been up to in the Parliament. They should apologise, because we were the ones that made this suggestion. The government laughed it off. Daniel Andrews thought it was irrelevant, but actually it was what was needed. It was what experts were calling for, it was what the police association were calling for, but as usual with this government, they are a day late and a dollar short on crime and the causes of crime, so they backflipped.

With youth crime at a 10-year high, now is not the time to weaken youth bail laws and raise the age of criminal responsibility. Declan Cutler was brutally murdered in March 2022. This case has been emotional and has affected many in the northern suburbs. I have been vocal on the need for criminal justice reform, but that does not extend to raise-the-age purists who believe a 14-year-old who committed such a heinous act should not be criminally responsible for their actions. I am not sure how the Minister for Corrections and Minister for Youth Justice and the Attorney-General could look Declan’s mother in the eye and say it is the right thing for a 14-year-old to get off scot-free for intentionally killing another teenager. Yes, I have been vocal on criminal justice reform, but raising the age is not the way, and I am glad that 14-year-old, now 16-year-old, who committed that murder will spend at least a decade in prison.

This Labor government must take a leadership position and address youth crime and ensure we protect community safety. This Labor government is spending more than New South Wales on youth crime but is supporting fewer young people in the system. Victoria had the lowest rate of young people in community supervision of any jurisdiction at just 3.7 per 10,000 young people compared with 15.8 per 10,000 in Queensland and 9.1 per 10,000 people in New South Wales. Additionally, this Labor government continues to see Indigenous young people incarcerated at disproportionate rates – about one in seven Indigenous young people are in detention per day on average compared to about one in eight in 2021–22.

One of the most shocking figures is the extent of reoffending among Victorian criminals. Figures from the Children’s Court show more than 40 per cent of kids aged 10 to 13 who have faced a Children’s Court in Victoria racked up more than 10 police charges or incidents within two years of receiving their first police charge. Almost a third of kids in that age group who have been in police or court contact were also hit with six or more charges within two years of their first offence. At the time of their first appearance in the Children’s Court 50 per cent had a prior intervention order in place. Shockingly, more than 96 per cent of those of those with a previous IVO were victims or survivors.

It shows that what the government is doing, the approach the government is taking, is not working. Children are offending and they keep reoffending, and we have seen incidents recently. We saw an incident just last night in the CBD, in my electorate, where 15 teenagers flooded a tram and were robbing people at 8 pm – in the daylight. Police caught up to them, or caught up to some of them, in Birrarung Marr and arrested three teenagers. We are seeing this over and over again. We are seeing violent home invasions, particularly in some of our south-eastern suburbs. My leader Ms Crozier even dealt with that personally. The extent to which Melbourne’s crime crisis is reaching people is greater now than ever. Everyone seems to have a story. Whether it be on public transport, whether it be while going for a run or whether it be while going to the shops, people are coming across that crime. In the debate on Mr Limbrick’s motion before people spoke a lot about that.

It is having an effect on my electorate, and the government is really not doing enough. There is almost one firebombing a week in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. I do not know how this government does not think it is a serious issue. In Glenroy not only was a shop firebombed, it was firebombed again 24 hours later. I visited Craigieburn South in the electorate of Greenvale, where a tobacco shop was blown up and also fire spread to the neighbouring house. It has happened in Fawkner about four times, and it just keeps happening – Coburg as well. The government has been caught quite flat-footed. Again, we are seeing the number of home invasions increase and the number of occasions of serious crimes increase. Particularly on the home invasions, it is worrying to see the age of some of the perpetrators that are being caught – it is very worrying.

That is why this motion is so important. We must get to the bottom of the government’s youth crime mess. We need an audit of expenditure to understand exactly how money is currently being spent and how it can be improved, and we need to overhaul the youth justice system to ensure Victorians who may have found themselves on the wrong side of the law do have the chance to be rehabilitated and have the chance to contribute to our society. If we can achieve this, it is a win–win. This is a moral good for people. This is pursuing the value of redemption in people’s lives. Instead of cutting funding to rehabilitation programs you can actually invest in young people in particular early in order to get that benefit, not only for someone’s life but for the taxpayer as well. It creates an economic good. As I said, why would you choose, as this government does, to spend $150,000 a year every year to keep someone in prison rather than make the investment necessary at the start to ensure that someone does not stay in prison?

I spoke in my maiden speech and on other policy documents about the stuff they are doing in Scandinavian countries in terms of justice reinvestment but also in the US, in states like Texas and Georgia. In Texas they have closed down 10 prisons in the past 10 years because they have invested in rehabilitation programs to keep people out of prison. It goes to show this government has the wrong approach in regard to youth crime.

We have a chance to have people – particularly young people – contribute to our society, and it is both a moral and economic good. The individual involved gets to live a meaningful and productive life, and society benefits through their contributions, reducing spending on the criminal justice system, and you can use that and reinvest it into community safety. But we must have community safety as our number one priority in all of this. You cannot weaken bail laws and raise the age of criminal responsibility – you fail to have the social licence to do that – if your number one focus is not on community safety. So I urge the house to support this important motion.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:06): I also rise to speak on the motion put forward by Ms Crozier and read in today by Mr Mulholland. What we have here once again from the Liberal Party is them taking a look at an issue, carefully picking out various odd statistics that help them to craft a narrative and using that narrative – using it for all their social media videos too, no doubt, and using it for their media lines. It is a very good sounding narrative; it is a very effective sounding narrative. The only problem is it is a narrative that does not add up.

We have got some statistics in this motion today, and Mr Mulholland has referred to a few of them as well. Firstly, I am going to start with New South Wales and the claim that we are spending double what they do on youth justice. I think an important point to note, firstly, that this motion completely fails to address is that Victoria actually has the lowest youth offending rate in the nation. This government does not resile from some of the various severe incidents we have seen recently, and we do not resile from taking action on that. But it is disingenuous to imply that we have worse offending issues than elsewhere in the nation when we actually have the lowest rate of offending in the nation. We also have the lowest incarceration rate per capita of youth offenders in the nation. I will just note briefly as well on that that the current proportion of offenders who are in the youth justice system – that is, the current proportion of all crimes that are committed by young people under the age of 18 – is currently around 12.7 per cent, markedly below the 20 per cent that it was at in 2014 when those opposite were last in power.

The other thing that it ignores is that it is easy to look at a blank figure and say, ‘That must be a problem.’ Each state has its own youth justice system. Naturally, you would imagine that in the smaller states – and this is borne out to be true in places like Tasmania and South Australia, where there is much lower population – of course it is going to cost more per inmate to keep them in there. The bulk-buy effect, if you like, is what Mr Mulholland seems to be spruiking by saying that we should be more like New South Wales. The more inmates you have, yes, the lower the cost per inmate will be. Victoria does have a higher cost per inmate than New South Wales, but as I said, we also have a lower incarceration rate than New South Wales does in our youth justice system. We have a lower youth crime rate than New South Wales does as well. So to pick these figures out and ignore the fact that we are actually leading New South Wales when it comes to this issue of youth crime is completely disingenuous and ignores the fact that the investments that this government is making are actually working. We do spend a considerable amount on this issue.

There is actually one thing I agree with Mr Mulholland on: where he talks about effective prevention in the first place. But that is exactly what we are doing. That is exactly why we are seeing the lowest youth crime rates in the nation. It does not happen by accident. It certainly did not happen under the previous government, when as I say, 20 per cent of all crimes were being committed by youth offenders. But now, when it is 12.7 per cent, that is a reflection of the very sorts of interventions and prevention methods that Mr Mulholland is calling for. They are already in place, and they are, by and large, working. Is there more to be done? Of course. There is always more to be done. And I acknowledge that Minister Erdogan is doing a lot in this space and has been working tirelessly, he and his office, particularly with some of these recent issues that we have seen as well but more fundamentally on the broader issue of reducing youth crime, and that is why we are seeing those numbers.

The figure of recidivism that Mr Mulholland mentioned – that 50 per cent are back in in two years time – I do not have to hand myself. I will take him at his word. But that is exactly why. He is saying that these programs are not working, but they are working, because these diversionary programs are helping to break the cycle before people get into the youth justice system in the first place, which is of course the best time. There are always going to be cases where the right outcome is incarceration, and that will always apply, whether it is in youth justice or in the adult justice system as well. But especially for youth justice, the more of these offenders, especially at those lower ends, we can divert from a life of crime, breaking that cycle, the more it will have – and does have – a huge and profound impact on them, on their lives and on our society as a whole. And that is exactly why these programs are in place, and they are actually working.

To compare us with New South Wales and say they have got more inmates and they get more bang for their buck – the equivalent of the Aldi double buy or whatever it is that Mr Mulholland is putting forward today – is not a solution for Victoria’s youth justice system. What this says implicitly is that you are happy to accept a higher incarceration rate, a higher youth crime rate, so that you can get more efficiency, more bang for your buck, in how much you are spending per inmate. That is not the approach of this government. This is a government that is determined to reduce youth crime but also to do it in a way, as far as is possible, that is compassionate and that breaks the cycle for those young offenders and gives them a chance, where it is deserved, to rebuild their lives. It is easy to look at a statistic and say, ‘Well, that’s an issue. That sounds really bad. I’m sure they’ll get a run on the news tonight with that figure.’ But do you know what? There is a deeper story, and the deeper story is showing that the interventions that this government is taking are actually working. As I say, there is always more to be done, but it is, broadly speaking and in a historical context, in a relatively good position.

I actually also note that general crime as a whole has increased since the pandemic. If you are able to be out of lockdown and out of curfew as we were in those moments, of course it is natural that crime will increase again.

Evan Mulholland interjected.

Michael GALEA: I am not blaming COVID, Mr Mulholland. I am pointing out that whilst that has happened since 2020, compared to 20 years ago, compared to the early noughties, which had the highest peaks of relative crime in this state if you look at it over a long-term basis, we are well below those crime rates of that era. So to say that this is out of control, as they are seeming to imply, is just wrong. It is in fact an example of how these diversionary programs are actually working and is why these figures are in the motion put forward by Ms Crozier and Mr Mulholland today.

So where would we be if we had not made that investment? We would probably be still at 20 per cent of all crime being committed by young people, maybe even higher, if we had kept going along with the Liberal Party’s policies at the time, doing nothing on the issue and letting the system go to ruin, instead of what we have done under the Andrews and now Allan Labor government, which has been to invest in our youth justice system, putting the resources that we need into it, but also and most critically of all, putting those resources in to break the cycle. I am sure this is another point where Mr Mulholland and I would actually agree: the best way to reduce crime is not to do it after the fact, it is to prevent it in the first place. He is calling on us to take a look at that. What I say to him is that we are actually already doing it.

This motion, as I have said, for those reasons fundamentally I do have an issue with. It is all too easy to remember that it was actually this Liberal Leader of the Opposition that we have now who was the architect of their, I think, 2018 scare campaign about African gangs at the time – a hideously racist campaign that targeted vulnerable new arrivals in this country. I know some members of the Liberal Party are now doing their absolute best to court some of these communities, but I know they do not forget that it was only a few years ago that the Liberal Party were absolutely demonising them. The current leader of the federal opposition was going around saying people in Melbourne are scared to go to dinner because of African gangs – what an absolute disgrace. What a disgrace he was then and what a disgrace he is now. He is a hack in search of a culture war, as we saw in January with the absolute rubbish of going after a supermarket chain for refusing to sell Australian-themed thongs. That issue aside, whatever your view is on Australia Day, I respect that there is a diversity of views, and it is good if we can have a sensible debate, not a ridiculously reactive culture war debate as we saw from their supposed leader, the Leader of the Opposition. But instead what we saw from this was threats against retail workers in Woolworths supermarkets increase and assaults against those workers increase as well, which is an absolute disgrace. I do not hold those on the state benches here accountable for it, but I am yet to hear any of them calling out that despicable behaviour from the federal Leader of the Opposition. As I say – you might agree with me, Mr McGowan – he is a hack in search of a culture war.

This motion, for the reasons that I have gone through, completely misses the point. They have completely missed the mark. They have cherrypicked at their leisure to say this is an issue, but they have completely got their sums wrong. They have completely failed to account for the fact that we have the lowest youth crime rate in the nation, we have the lowest incarceration rate of youth justice offenders in the nation, and that is a good thing. That shows that the interventions that we are putting into place are working, whereas you would lock them up and let that percentage increase and increase so we have more and more youth offenders. Our policies overall are delivering better outcomes for more youth justice offenders. There is always more to do, and we will continue to do it.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:16): I rise to speak on Ms Crozier’s motion on youth justice and youth crime. This is an important area that needs real solutions. While Mr Galea seems to think that they have everything under control and that there is nothing to see here, the reality is that we are at a 10-year high when it comes to youth crime. Now is not the time to weaken youth bail laws, now is not the time to raise the age of criminal responsibility and now is not the time to make cuts to police stations. If we do not have strength in our youth justice system, not only do we jeopardise the safety of Victorians, but also we begin to fail vulnerable young people in our state. It is heartbreaking to see young people full of potential caught in the cycle of crime.

It is well documented that youth crime is on the rise. Here are some statistics for you. There is a concerning trend that is heading the wrong way. Alleged offender incidence with children between 10 and 14 years old is up almost 32 per cent; these are just kids. Alleged incidence with young people between 15 and 17 is up almost 33 per cent. And the rate of alleged incidence of children 15 years old is the worst out of any age bracket – 15-year-olds. The Allan Labor government continues to see Indigenous young people incarcerated at a disproportionate rate. About one in seven Indigenous young people are in detention per day on average. This is one more person than it was two years ago. This is a trend that is heartbreaking, and it is not progressive; we are heading the wrong way. Yet in the midst of a crisis, Labor have cut manned police station hours in 43 police stations across Victoria. It is counterintuitive, and it has potentially devastating consequences.

I was really shocked to hear yesterday the contempt displayed by Greens member Mr Puglielli towards the police in Victoria. Police are one of our most protective resources. They are worth respect and they are worth dignity, and I think they are doing a fantastic job. But police station cuts in my region have left many feeling vulnerable. The police station in Hastings has had its manned hours cut from 24 hours per day to just 16. The closest stations to Hastings now that are open are Frankston and Rosebud, and this is leaving young people and business owners and families feeling abandoned. At a meeting in Hastings with a business group that I attended recently there was a business owner that said she actually dreads the holiday period approaching because she knows when the holiday period approaches, there is a rise in youth crime. This has been a consistent pattern over the past few years. Police stations in Mornington have had their manned hours cut from 24 hours a day to 16 hours a day also, from Sunday to Wednesday. So it is giving those who are engaging in crime a clear time line of the best time for them to offend and the time when they are least likely to get caught. Last week you would have seen on the news that a 76-year-old man was assaulted by youths on the Mornington Pier. People should not be in danger when walking on a pier in a popular area, but this is what things have come to in Mornington. Lakes Entrance police station have had their manned hours cut to just 8 hours a day. The closest stations are Bairnsdale, which is 36 kilometres away, and Sale, which is 106 kilometres away. This is just not adequate.

Unless Labor takes real action to address the causes of crime, including early intervention, prevention and rehabilitation, Victorians will continue to suffer. I believe we need to have strong penalties for offenders. A strong police presence is a powerful deterrent, and it is something that we should be increasing, not decreasing. There also needs to be hope for children and young people who have offended – hope for them to break the cycle and turn their lives around. Our youth justice system is ineffective, it is costly and it fails to see young people on the path to rehabilitation. In Victoria more than 70 per cent of young people return to sentence supervision within 12 months, compared to just 48 per cent in New South Wales. Under Labor, vital crime prevention and justice programs to get young Victorians on the right path are being slashed, and the majority of young offenders who leave the youth justice system end up reoffending and back in the system within 12 months.

So how can we give young offenders a way out? Well, education is key. Labor’s broken education system is failing our youth; the school-to-prison pipeline is real, and we need strategies to engage at-risk students. A 2017 study by the Australian Institute of Criminology found a connection between poor school engagement and problem behaviour like drug and tobacco use. It found that once young people became alienated from school environments their attitudes changed towards poor behaviour. They found drugs, alcohol and smoking okay, slowly leading to violence and eventually jail. Our failure to adequately resource our education system is having consequences far beyond the classroom.

The second thing I would like to talk about is that community connection is key. I spoke recently to a young man in my electorate who had been involved in crime and managed to turn his life around. He said that community connection was a vital part of his rehabilitation. His suggestions were that community groups, churches, youth groups, Rotary and Lions clubs – everyone – can play a role in creating a more inclusive and connected environment that can help people break the cycle of crime involvement. So I support this motion, and I recommend the house support this motion.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (11:23): I am pleased to rise to speak on Ms Crozier’s motion in relation to youth crime. I would normally begin by reading out some of the motion, but I feel that the language that has been used in the motion itself is probably unnecessarily and unhelpfully provocative in not taking a measured yet serious approach to the question of youth offending in the community. I do think that when we approach these debates – and I understand that people do feel strongly about them – we need to do so with language that does not seek to either escalate or victimise but seeks to address with seriousness the issues which many in our community face who are concerned about community safety and crime rates in their local community, and I will talk a little bit about some of the conversations that I have had with my local communities about these issues in recent months. But it also I think is incumbent upon us in having a measured debate on this topic to understand that the individuals that we are dealing with here are youth offenders. We need to make sure that we get them out of the cycle which they are so often in that is leading to these sorts of behaviours, and the approach that we need to take as a government and as a community and as leaders in both of those things is to understand and try to break that cycle of youth offending, because an approach to crime prevention is as necessary as a policing response to deal with incidents as they arise, and we can do both.

I am concerned about the way that the tone of the debate in this chamber has commenced. It is the starting point, as it should be, that everyone in the community has got a right to feel safe, particularly in their own home. Community safety must be an absolute priority of any government – of all governments, but particularly of a state government, which has community safety and policing as one of its core responsibilities as a level of government. Offending – breaking the law – is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, and we must support those who are victims of those acts, because the effects not only are immediate but can be long-lasting. We all know too well how sensitive – and rightly – people are to incursions and infringements on things like their home and the sense of safety and security that that provides to people.

We have seen, unfortunately, a series of incidents of youth offending across the community, and in the conversations that I have certainly had with local police in parts of my community in Southern Metropolitan Region and with neighbourhood watch groups – I have been engaged in discussing these issues with them – and certainly from the broader work that Victoria Police is doing more broadly in the community crime prevention space, we know at the moment what we are seeing is a very small number of young people who are committing a high rate of high-harm offending. That action is unacceptable, and we must hold them to account for that, which is why the frontline policing response that we have seen from Victoria Police I think demonstrates the seriousness with which the Victoria Police treats these issues. They do that with the government’s full support, because in recent times Victoria Police have made significant dedicated resources available to tackle this sort of offending – resources that have been made available because of the decisions that the government has made over successive budgets to better resource Victoria Police.

It is an investment that we have been making over our time in government to invest in the sorts of resources that Victoria Police needs to tackle crime in the community so that with things like we have been seeing recently with increased incidents of youth offending in certain areas by certain groups of high-harm offenders, Victoria Police can initiate specific responses to try and tackle those. We have seen things like Operation Alliance, which has been established to disrupt and dismantle youth street gangs and prevent serious violent crimes. As a result of that targeted operation Victoria Police have made more than 1400 arrests and laid more than 3400 charges. Victoria Police have also recently concluded Operation Trinity, a dedicated operation to combat aggravated burglaries and associated car thefts. As part of Operation Trinity, Victoria Police made almost 1800 arrests, including 374 arrests for aggravated burglary and car theft.

What we are seeing is that because of the investments the government has made in Victoria Police’s overall resources over a sustained period of time, when incidents like this do emerge in the community Victoria Police is able to respond with the resources that it needs. Far from the set of circumstances which those opposite might be seeking to whip up in the course of this debate, we are seeing that the Victoria Police response is effective in making arrests and in stopping offences. There is absolutely more to do, and we cannot stop with that vigilance. But it is very clear that Victoria Police are responding to these incidents, and they are absolutely making inroads.

But we do not solve these problems by just having an immediate and targeted policing response. We solve the problems of youth offending in the medium to long term by investing in crime prevention programs, by ensuring that, in the words of former pollies in the UK, we are both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. That rings true today as it did back in the mid-1990s, which is why we invest in crime prevention programs to try and provide support services to young people who may be either engaged in or at risk of engaging in criminal pathways to ensure they have the sort of social supports that they need and the education that they need. This means that they have got the wraparound services, the family support and the social work support to get them out of pathways to crime. And those sorts of programs work. One of the investments we made under the youth crime prevention program is driving a 29 per cent reduction in offending for participants. That is nearly a third of people who are engaged in a crime prevention program not going on to reoffend, and I think that is absolutely the right sort of approach that we need to be taking and the right sort of investment that we need to be making as a government to ensure that crime prevention is as important a part of our response to youth offending as a policing response is. As I said, we are absolutely doing both.

We have seen repeatedly the effects of these intervention programs having an impact on things like youth recidivism rates. Our goal is to make sure that people do not end up long-term stayers in the youth justice system, because that is only a training ground for making them more efficient criminals. We need to make sure that their lives are put back on track and that they are supported but also that offenders are punished and that police resources are there to make arrests where they are needed and to respond to and support victims. But fundamentally we need to make sure that to reduce youth crime we are providing that range of services that are required, and that is the sort of approach that the government is taking – targeted policing, crime prevention support and support to youth and families. That is the kind of approach that is going to see a real impact on these stats.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:33): I also rise to speak on this motion about youth crime and youth justice, and I would like to start by pointing out some things that Mr Batchelor said on the other side of the chamber. He said that there is ‘absolutely more to do’. Let us talk about how much more we have to do, and let us just look at number (4) on the motion. This is what we are here for in opposition – to call this government to account and to make it more accountable and more transparent. This is what it says:

(4) calls on the Allan Labor government to:

(a) conduct an immediate audit of expenditure on youth crime in Victoria; and

(b) overhaul the youth justice system to improve its capacity to rehabilitate young Victorians and keep our community safe.

Let us just start at that point right now. Mr Batchelor talked about reduction and having young people not go on to offend, yet we know from recent articles from the Age that that is actually not the case. In fact that is one of the reasons that this motion is in place. The Age says:

More than 40 per cent of kids aged 10 to 13 who faced a children’s court in Victoria racked up more than 10 police charges or incidents within two years of receiving their first police charge …

I fail to see how this is a good rehabilitation program that this government has. Let us go on to have a look at this one:

Among the children aged 10 to 12 years old who faced court, two thirds had their charges struck out or dismissed, including where they were found incapable of being held criminally responsible.

That is not such a bad thing if that is the case and we are looking after our young people, but what about the situation of prevention and intervention? What are we doing in that space? If this is adequate, then why do we have this:

At the time of their first appearance at the Children’s Court, 50 per cent had a prior intervention order in place.

Fifty per cent. I fail to see how this is a great rehabilitation program that is not worthy of the scrutiny that this motion actually proposes to this government.

On top of that, we can see that there are financial cost blowouts. Where is this money going if we are actually not having a huge impact on youth crime? We can see this motion says quite clearly:

(a) out-of-control youth crime is jeopardising the safety of Victorian homes and families …

Well, I am quite sure I can tell you that in my electorate my constituents are facing issues with crime regularly. In fact recently I was doorknocking in a court in Carrum’s Skye area, and in one little court the incidents of crime that had taken place were unimaginable. One lady goes to visit her friends with her baby, she takes her things out of the car, she has a brand new car in the driveway of a court and when she comes back to get the rest of the stuff for the baby the car has already been stolen. This was reported to have been young people, and I do not see that this government is doing enough.

Let us look at point (1)(b):

youth crime rates are at their highest in 10 years …

That is in direct contrast to what people on the other side of the chamber have been saying – the highest in 10 years. So I do not see how all this money that is being spent is being spent in a way that is actually causing prevention to take place, or intervention. And I say this with tremendous passion because I myself have been a youth worker. I have visited youth detention facilities, I have worked and been in the courts and had to do court reports and I have had to go and visit young people in their homes, and I can tell you that there are major issues and we are not doing enough. More can be done, and that is what this motion is all about.

Point (2):

expresses concern at Labor’s waste and mismanagement of the youth justice system, notably:

(a) spending more than double New South Wales on detention-based supervision for young people per day …

Double New South Wales. If this government is doing such a great job of managing the finances that it has in this area, why is it that it has spent more than double New South Wales on detention-based supervision? Let me say that one of those places of supervision lay dormant for 12 months. Goodness knows where that money was going. The motion goes on:

(b) overseeing more than 70 per cent of young people leaving detention or community-based supervision returning to sentenced supervision within 12 months …

I alluded to that earlier when I started speaking. Point (3):

further expresses concern that despite exorbitant funding, Victoria’s youth justice system fails to set young people on the path to rehabilitation …

I can say it is challenging work to work in the space of youth work, and I want to shout out to all of those who currently work in this space and say, ‘Keep going. Continue to do a good job.’ But we do have a lot of young people who are continually falling into the system and not finding their way out of it. We do need to be more vigilant, and we do need to look at what programs are on offer and how this money is being spent.

Again, like some of my colleagues, there are a number of things that I would like to point out. There has been a concerning increase, a trend, of youth offenders in the 10- to 14-year-old area, and that is currently up by 32 per cent. There has also been an increase in 15- to 17-year-olds, and that is up by 33 per cent. In fact the 15-year-old age group has been found to be the worst offenders in terms of incidents. This is definitely not being addressed appropriately or adequately by this government. Instead of addressing the drivers of youth crime, Labor has failed to act again and again and again and again.

I think it is incredibly important at this point for me to shout out as well to the police and to say that they do a phenomenal job and that we do need to teach young people to respect and to admire the work of the police, who constantly put themselves in harm’s way. Some of them used to be part of – and I know that Brad Battin in the other place also was part of this – police in schools, and that program allowed young people and children to be around policemen not only to find out what they do but to understand and to have respect for the police force. That is, sadly, starting to lack, as we have seen in recent times, and I think this is something that we need to work very hard on. Having police in schools was of course a Liberal policy and continues to be a policy that we support, because we want our young people to understand the benefits of working with police and to understand that there are good police out there who are wanting to sort out things and that you can rely on in times of need or of crime.

Unless this government takes real action to address the causes of crime, including early intervention, prevention and rehabilitation, we in Victoria are going to continue to suffer. The youth justice system is clearly failing our young people and their parents. I can say that I have spoken to constituents in my area who are parents of young offenders, and it is heartbreaking for them that once they end up in the system there does not seem to be any way for them to turn around and get out of it. There is a very minimal amount of young people that actually do and can. Even though these young people can have the most loving, doting parents, there are inadequate support and programs available, and that is what this motion is actually addressing. I think we need to be very, very clear on that point.

To actually not want to support this motion to me is not only an oxymoron but actually inappropriate, because it is not doing the right thing by Victorians. We need to do the right thing by Victorians to keep them safe. We also need to do the right thing by our young people and to give them programs and opportunities to be able to get out of a life of crime and do something with their lives. I am very, very pleased to be able to speak on this motion, and I do want to come up with one more thing and address the situation that was mentioned by my opponent on the other side of the chamber about the Sudanese. I love the Sudanese community. I love the African community. I have spent time in Africa, and I do think it is appalling that any group should ever be called out and singled out in the issue of crime. Even for those families, it is incredibly difficult. That is all I have to say.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:44): Today I rise to contribute to the debate on the motion from Ms Crozier. The motion notes a variety of contentions that are quite serious. It talks about youth crime jeopardising the safety of Victorian homes and families. It talks to the rate of youth crime. There is a line on ministerial accountability as well as the Allan Labor government’s management of the youth justice system, and there is a line on detention-based supervision and its comparison to other states in Australia, particularly New South Wales. It might not say the word, but there is a line about what I think it is an important topic to talk about – recidivism rates. In my view this is important and something that all governments and the Allan Labor government should be committed to – and we are committed to: rehabilitating young people. Then it calls on the Allan Labor government to conduct an audit of expenditure on youth crime in Victoria and overhaul the youth justice system to improve its capacity to rehabilitate young Victorians and keep our community safe.

The Allan Labor government has without doubt made significant contributions to remedying the cause of youth crime and implementing prevention measures. We are approaching this from many facets. We have a Minister for Youth Justice, my friend Minister Erdogan in this place, who is taking the lead here, but also we have the Minister for Youth in the other place, my friend Minister Suleyman, and their initiatives to engage with, consult, listen to and learn from young people. We know that conditions that lower a young person’s quality of life have been shown to directly impact their chances of being involved in youth crime, and therefore taking a whole-of-government and a whole-of-cabinet holistic approach is vital to tackling youth crime.

Across the state the Allan Labor government has been funding and opening youth hubs – spaces for young people to go and connect with other young people or participate in tailored programs that will improve their wellbeing and lives. The statistics show that if young people do not have support networks, safe places and community connections, they can in some instances turn to crime, which is exactly why the Allan Labor government believes it is essential that we invest in the quality of life of young Victorians. To do so we have created and supported youth hubs, centres like Scout halls and other third spaces for young people to come together and build community. I am thoroughly impressed with the work of the Minister for Youth and her dedication to improving the lives of young Victorians and of course the Minister for Crime Prevention and Minister for Police in the other place, my friend Mr Carbines.

There are also statistics showing a direct correlation between youth detention and recidivism. The younger a person is convicted, the more likely they are to be redetained throughout their lives. That is why we have invested more than $13 million into funding youth crime prevention programs. It brings the total investment to more than $40 million into the program, and it is giving an essential support service and social engagement to at-risk young people.

I have seen firsthand our investment into crime prevention programs at play. Last year I visited Swinburne University with the Minister for Crime Prevention to see the work they do in building connections with young people to build positive futures. It delivers a sense of community to ensure young people are set on a good path. I want to thank all involved in this, and I look forward to working with the team in my community of Southern Metro and the incredible university staff at Swinburne to deliver this.

Our crime prevention grants and programs in the Pasifika space continue to support young people. In 2021 the $11 million building safer communities program delivered a series of community forums based on crime prevention as well as grants for local community safety initiatives. It was as a result of this that a partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth developed, where $150,000 went to the Pasifika prototype to find culturally appropriate solutions to keep young people on the right track. Our investment is working.

Our youth crime prevention program forms part of the broader $100 million investment package, which has delivered more than 940 crime prevention projects, and evaluation of the program has shown the level of its success. The program has driven a 29 per cent reduction in offending in participants and a significant reduction in the level of severity of offending when it does occur.

Detention is an unacceptable outcome for Victoria’s youth, which is why the Allan Labor government has opted to prevent the negative effects of youth detention through establishing and funding several prevention programs and strategies all over Victoria. In the 2023–24 state budget the Allan Labor government contributed $13.6 million towards the youth crime prevention program, supporting young people between 10 and 24 who have been or are at risk of contact with the youth justice system. It is designed to broadly address the cause of youth crime activity. This has led us to $40 million of investment in youth crime prevention since 2016. Child rights organisation 54 Reasons, based in the Greater Shepparton region, received $350,000 for education and support services. We invested $1 million to support the extension of the Pivot program, a local program running across Casey, Dandenong and Frankston which aims to tackle the cause of youth offending. They have been able to support over 4800 young people through their services, including 1800 who have received intensive support. And we launched the youth client voice project, a $41,000 government investment as part of the Barwon Child, Youth and Family’s Reignite Geelong program, which gave 12 young people who had had contact with the Victorian justice system an online platform to share their stories and inform our prevention services. Since 2016 we have invested more than $26 million in youth crime prevention grants, including $2.1 million to the aforementioned Barwon Child, Youth and Family.

The Allan Labor government is investing in prevention and is actively tackling the causes of youth offending, supporting organisations such as Pivot and 54 Reasons to engage youth in education, employment, interpersonal relationships and community connection. Our government’s tireless efforts to tackle youth crime prevention are working. We are leading the country in responses to youth crime. We are making sure less people are behind bars, with Victoria having the lowest number of people behind bars on the east coast. There is still a lot of work to be done in addressing the causes and the aggravators of youth crime, but the Allan Labor government is doing the work – the hard work, the real work – to push forward the reforms to put young Victorians on a better pathway.

The Report on Government Services that my colleagues have discussed notes our successes in moving young Victorians away from the criminal justice system in the first place. We have the lowest rate of young people in custody. The young people in our youth justice system often have histories of abuse, neglect and trauma. We know the profound impact this has had on their lives, so it is vital that we support them in a multipronged approach from health, rehabilitation and education to intervention. It all helps to reduce the risk of reoffending. It is that early intervention that makes a big difference in the long run, so we have invested at record levels for the state of Victoria to give our young Victorians the best chance to address concerning behaviours and turn their lives around.

I have six kids, all of them in their 20s. I have been through the kinders, the primary schools and the high schools over an almost 30-year period of raising kids. I know that no young person is the same, so I appreciate the whole-of-government approach we are taking to this matter, from better education access from the Deputy Premier to the Minister for Health in the other place and indeed the Minister for Housing in this place. It is only the Allan Labor government that will continue to push forward the reforms that the Victorian youth need to avoid criminal activity. I am proud to work with a government that has started improving the outcomes of youth in contact with the criminal justice system and will continue to do so.

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (11:52): I rise to speak to this motion 290 raised by Georgie Crozier. It is important in relation to this motion, it is fundamental in relation to community safety and it is an investment in our youth and our community’s future. I speak because I have risen in this chamber to speak in relation to increasing crime many times in this house. Youth crime is out of control and is jeopardising the safety of Victorian homes and families. Sadly, our youth crime rate is at its highest under this government.

To put it into perspective, I will give you a small picture of what we are facing. Just last month in January in my electorate there were several home invasions in Melbourne’s west. These homes that were invaded were in Albanvale, Keilor Park, Altona Meadows, Sunshine, Braybrook, Kings Park, Deer Park and St Albans. Following an extensive investigation, over 140 offences were processed. Youth offenders were among those charged with offences, totalling over 45, including aggravated burglary and home invasion. I raised earlier this year the increasing crime in relation to those aged between 10 and 14 and that it increased 45 per cent across the state. In aggravated burglary, for those aged between 10 and 14 it spiked at 87 per cent. Ninety per cent of offenders involved in violence in aggravated burglary were between the ages of 13 and 19.

According to the annual report of the Commission for Children and Young People tabled in Parliament last year, violence in school is going up. At the end of 2021 there were 197 reportable allegations of violence in school. In 2022 there were 261, and in 2023 that figure jumped to 325. That shows that this did not happen overnight. Violent youth crime under this government has increased and has been steadily growing over the decade. What is really alarming is the increase in the trend of youth offenders, where the alleged offending among 10- to 14-year-olds has increased by 32 per cent and among 15- and 17-year-olds by 33 per cent. We need to ask why the rate of incidents for the age of 15 is the worst among the group. Instead of focusing on age, which is how the government is addressing the broken justice system, preventing youth from entering the system in the first place is what we need to look at. Raising the age may give this government a false fix for that age bracket, but it will not reduce the youth crime crisis in Victoria we are encountering. Under this Labor government it is vital we focus on crime prevention. Justice programs for young Victorians are the path we need to look at.

The fact is that under this government funds for effective programs diverting youth away from crime are being slashed and the vast majority of young offenders who leave the youth justice system end up reoffending and are back within 12 months. I will give you an example in relation to what we are saying about slashing funds. Having been a police officer, we had police in schools. We spoke to kids who were on that path and on the margin of getting in trouble, and they would interact with police. Police took those kids away on weekends, on camp, and would try to build rapport, give them advice and keep them on the right path. This government just took that away, slashed it away, just to cut the funding. That is an example of what I mean in relation to slashing prevention programs – proactive prevention. I just want to quote former chief commissioner Kel Glare, who said there were no effective programs diverting children from crime and there is no plan under this government. And that is actually true; it is what I am saying.

This government have taken no action to reduce crime for those who have offended and they have stopped early prevention, and we do not know what is going on in relation to how to manage the justice system. Do not get me wrong, our youth justice criminal system is not perfect, but it has a good structure to ensure the children who enter the system are protected. But under this government it is getting eroded, flooded and overwhelmed with youth offenders due to the lack of assistance to support those entering the system. Prevention and ensuring those that enter the system in the first place do not reoffend again is what we need to look at.

Mismanagement is an understatement when we are talking about youth offending under this government. They say they have spent $13 million in relation to crime prevention. I am not sure where the money is going. Obviously is not working, according to the crime rate of youth offending at the moment. What we know is we need to focus on stopping youth reoffending. Under this government it costs Victorians $5900 per day – more than double the cost of a young person in detention compared to New South Wales, which is $2759 a day – to manage and supervise those youths. Why are we doubling the cost?

Members interjecting.

Trung LUU: I heard across the chamber that it is because of the volume. Surely you cannot compare managing, looking after and the supervision of youths to how you purchase goods. Surely the money is not to cover the cost of the power bill. I know Victorians are paying the highest power costs in the nation – another bit of mismanagement I will talk about another day in relation to the power bill. But in relation to managing kids in detention, it is something this government need to look at very closely – how they are giving kids the opportunity to not reoffend once they have been released.

I am not sure what this government is spending the money on, but it is certainly not investing in effective programs to set the youth on the right path, because in Victoria more than 70 per cent of young offenders are returning to sentenced supervision within 12 months, which is compared to 40 per cent in New South Wales. It is something we need to really address.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.