Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Youth justice system

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:22): (882) My question is to the Minister for Corrections. Minister, Liana Buchanan, the outgoing commissioner for children and young people, has said rehabilitation and education programs for youth offenders in custody have been compromised by staff shortages and lockdowns. Minister, why are you failing to provide education to young offenders in custody?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:23): Ms Crozier, I am not sure if you listened to my ministers statement about participation in educational programs. We have the second-highest participation in the adult corrections system, but we also do amazing work in the youth justice system to give young people the chance to address offending behaviour and to provide supports from an educational perspective. I might add that I do reject the premise of your question, but I am happy to assist.

In our youth justice system we have made record investments, and I am proud of the Allan Labor government for the work we have done in particular in our youth justice system but also in our adult corrections system. There are the investments in centres of excellence. If you are talking about our youth justice system, our Cherry Creek facility is really transformational. It is obviously an important investment in terms of the physical space, but it is more than the physical space; it is the investments that we have made in intensive wraparound health services, educational facilities and also a pathway to vocational outcomes. We always need to do more to share the success stories of our youth justice system, but I can confirm that there are three young people that are now attending university level in our youth justice system. I obviously cannot go into individual cases, but when I had a look at their life circumstances, I can say that they would be unlikely to be attaining a bachelor level of education if it were not for the efforts of our frontline youth justice staff. So I do want to take an opportunity to thank the staff in our youth justice system, who do an amazing –

Members interjecting.

David Ettershank: On a point of order, President, I am interested to hear the minister’s presentation, and I cannot do that.

The PRESIDENT: Can the minister continue and be heard in silence.

Enver ERDOGAN: What I will add is that we do have a strong complement of staff in our youth justice system at the moment, considering we do have historically low numbers in custodial settings. In the first place we do not want young people making contact with the criminal justice system, but when they do we will try to obviously avoid them coming into custodial settings through early intervention and diversions and the cautionary system we have that we all in this chamber reflected on during the Youth Justice Act discussions last year. But when they do come into our systems, I know how passionate the staff are; it has been one of the privileges for me to meet the staff in our youth justice system, who are committed to keeping our community safe but also committed to giving these young people the best chance to address their underlying behavioural issues that many of these young people have.

An example I gave was the engagement at university level; so these are bachelor’s degrees – some of these young people are in second- or third-year university now who would have never had that opportunity out in the world because of their life circumstances. We now understand that people that come into our system come in from different perspectives and different lived experiences of life to many of us in this place that are more fortunate. But we will make every effort and continue to make those investments, working together with our partners at Parkville College but also our partners in the TAFE sector that provide educational opportunities for these young people that want to take up those opportunities.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:26): Minister, the Premier has said that under the new bail laws, ‘It is my expectation that we will see an increase in the number of people on remand.’ If education programs are not being delivered now, as the commissioner has alerted to, what are you doing to ensure that education and rehabilitation programs are provided to youth offenders on remand?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:26): I do reject the premise of the supplementary question by Ms Crozier. As in my substantive answer, if you listened closely, we have a strong complement of staff; we are committed to working closely with Parkville College and all our vocational partners to provide these young people with the opportunities they need. There is strong support for those young people, and for those young people that want to address their offending behaviour there will be programs in place; there is currently and there will be programs in place for any of the new young people that enter our system. There are a lot of positive changes happening within the youth justice system, and it is important that we support our staff that are doing that important work. If anyone is watching, if you want a rewarding career there will be more opportunities going forward in the youth justice system; it is a challenging career, but it is a rewarding career.