Youth crime
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:17): My question is to the Minister for Children. Minister, a 14-year-old in state care has been described by police as ‘one of our most prolific youth offenders’. Two weeks ago he was bailed for the 50th time. Police have said his offending, including home invasions and car theft, ‘just has not stopped’ and is putting the lives of innocent motorists at risk. The magistrate that granted him bail suggested his carers ‘step up their supervision of him’. Minister, you as minister are responsible for this young boy, so I ask: when are you going to, as the magistrate has suggested, step up the supervision of him before an innocent Victorian is hurt or killed?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:18): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. At the outset can I, as I always do, acknowledge that children involved in the child protection system are indeed amongst some of the most vulnerable children in our community and indeed have often experienced significant trauma, abuse and at times neglect in their lives as well. These vulnerabilities and experiences can lead to offending and subsequent involvement in the youth justice system. But I would remind those opposite that it is important to remember that correlation is not causation, which is something that those opposite fail to understand. It is also important to recognise that residential care provides a home where children live. It is not a custodial setting. I will repeat that: it is not a custodial setting. If you have a corrections question, then it is appropriate to direct it to the Minister for Corrections. If you have a question in relation to sentencing and bail, then you should also direct those to the right place.
My responsibilities relate to the protection of children in care. Let me be clear: children in care should have access to the same opportunities as all other children do in their communities. As you have rightly pointed out at times in this place, children in care should have an opportunity to engage in their education settings, in social settings, in community settings, in activities outside of the home in the same manner as all of their peers do. Before the decision is made to place a young person in residential care it is clear that all other options have been explored, because the preference is always that a child be placed with kin or in a family home. The preference is to place those children in those settings, but where children are in residential care, it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that those children have the same opportunities of education, socialisation and community that other children do.
If a person has been released on bail, I will remind you that they are released to a non-custodial setting. It is important to recognise that residential care settings are a home. They are a home for vulnerable children. They are a place where children live; they are not a custodial setting. It is the responsibility of the child protection system to ensure that those children have access to a home, to an education and to the health and wellbeing services that they need to recover from, often, experiences of abuse and neglect but that they also have opportunities for education and social engagement.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:20): Minister, how many children in state care like this boy are on bail?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:21): Thank you, Ms Crozier, for your question. As I have said, children in residential care are children who are living in a home provided by the state. They are in residential care as a place to live and as a place to experience services and to get access to services like education and like health and wellbeing services that they previously did not necessarily always have the best access to. These are children whose lives have in many ways experienced trauma and experienced neglect that have led them to those settings in the first place. Children in residential care are vulnerable children who need our respect and they need those services. They do not need the politics of those opposite, and I am not going to engage with them.
Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, it was a very specific question that the minister has wilfully failed to answer.
A member interjected.
Georgie Crozier: I will be raising a point of order at the end of question time, then, to have the question reinstated.
The PRESIDENT: I will consider both points of order at the end of question time.