Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Court Services Victoria

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:43): (716) My question is to the Attorney-General. Attorney, with funding cuts of over $20 million to Court Services Victoria in this year’s budget, we are already seeing courts having to make some savage cuts to services. Recently it was revealed that the Children’s Court at Ringwood, Sunshine, Werribee, Heidelberg and Frankston will all be closed, forcing victims of youth crime, witnesses and young alleged offenders to travel much further to attend court. With youth crime at a 14-year high under this Labor government, how does inflicting further pain on victims of crime by making them travel even further to attend court improve access to justice?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:44): I thank Mr McGowan for his question, but there is some misinformation in the way he has characterised the proposal to streamline some Children’s Court matters. This is something that is being worked on as a result of justice partners coming together to discuss initiatives to tackle youth crime, so that involved Mr Erdogan’s portfolio, Mr Carbines’s portfolio and my portfolio bringing people together to come up with immediate initiatives that could continue to support the amazing work of the youth justice legislation. One of the suggestions there was from the courts, in conjunction with consultation with police, to bring about some streamlined efforts. It is part of the courts’ centralisation and focus on youth crime. It is about ensuring that the correct court is chosen for the individual child.

The way you have characterised it is if a child is from Ringwood but they actually commit a crime in Sunshine, they are required to go to the Sunshine court at the moment. Under the changes, they would be required to go to the closest court, which would mean that individual children more often than not would be able to be supported to return to the same court rather than different courts across the state. That is going to ensure that you can understand the underlying causes of the crime so that you can form a view of what the best interventions are from a youth justice perspective and from a criminal justice response and indeed be informed by more regular police. At the moment you are getting different individuals that have different views and less contact with the child. Very regularly the police informant is not somebody who was involved in the charging of the child. We are trying to bring everyone together so that there is more attention on the individual child and so that we understand how to best respond to that child’s offending behaviour. This is not about disenfranchising victims. This is not about funding cuts. This is about responding to the community concerns of youth justice.

I am more than happy to give you a more in-depth briefing. I know you raised an adjournment matter last night, and I have started to prepare an answer because there is a lot in it. I am concerned with the way you have characterised your questions, the way you are speaking to the community, because it is not about funding cuts. This is an initiative designed to bring about a better outcome. One of the things that we announced as part of the youth justice package also was dedicated magistrates that are going to be specialised Children’s Court magistrates. At the moment in the Magistrates Court in Melbourne they literally put their magistrate’s hat on, and then 5 minutes later they might be doing a Children’s Court matter and they become a Children’s Court magistrate. That means that you get no familiarity, no streamlining, and there is a lack of consistency – (Time expired)

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:47): Can I thank the minister for her response and her answer in respect to my initial question. Attorney, as you know, as a result of the Allan Labor government’s budget cuts there will not be a single Children’s Court operating in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne following the closure of Ringwood and Heidelberg. This service cut has been condemned by Oonah Aboriginal health CEO Amanda Hand, who has said:

… we expect the impact of the closure of the Ringwood Children’s Court to have an immediate impact …

Attorney, you are also the Leader of the Government in this chamber. If you cannot protect your own portfolio from consequences of your government’s financial mismanagement, what excuse can you offer the people of the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, who have had their last local Children’s Court taken away?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:48): It is just not true, the way you have characterised it. In fact we have funded an additional magistrate into the Children’s Court system. There is additional funding going into the Children’s Court system. We are consolidating the lists. We will have Dandenong still operating. It is that list, and it is about bringing about better outcomes. I am more than happy to take you through how this is going to be a better approach to tackling youth crime.