Allan Government must seize opportunity to transform Victoria’s youth justice system
The Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Allan Government to be brave in transforming Victoria’s youth justice system, with the Youth Justice Bill 2024 introduced into the Victorian Parliament today.
Every child should be free to go to school, have a safe home to live in and be supported to learn from their mistakes. Five years in the making, the Allan Government must seize this opportunity to make this a reality for every child and create a better future for everyone in Victoria. Instead, the proposed youth justice changes announced today fall short and risk further harming and criminalising children.
Any engagement with the criminal legal system causes harm to a child, including first contact with police. The proposal to only raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, and allow police to use limited force or transport children under 12, undermines the purpose of the reform. In September 2023, the Yoorrook Justice Commission recommended that the Victorian Government raise the age to 14, following recommendations made by numerous other reports and inquiries.
Alongside raising the age to at least 14, the Victorian Government must maximise opportunities for children to be diverted at all stages of the legal process. The evidence is clear that diverting more children away from the criminal legal system has a positive impact in reducing their chances of being re-criminalised in future.
The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Allan Government to deliver long overdue transformation of the state’s youth justice system and:
raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old with no exceptions and no new police powers;
divert more children away from police and the criminal legal system;
stick to their promise to make the state’s youth bail laws fairer for children by removing almost all reverse-onus bail provisions and abandon the proposed surveilling of children through a trial of ineffective electronic monitoring;
curb the harm caused by youth prisons by banning harmful prison practices including the solitary confinement, strip searching and spithooding of children; and
properly support community-led alternatives to police and prisons.
Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre:
"The Allan Government has a choice: to continue turbo-charging ‘tough on crime’ politics which fails children and communities, or to implement evidence-based alternatives which work and ensure that every child grows up with their family and community.
"Children do not belong in prisons. Raising the age of criminal responsibility from ten to at least 14 years old now is the bare minimum reform the Premier must action. This reform must apply to all children - no exemptions and no new police powers.
"Increasing police powers and pipelining more children into youth prisons is never the answer. The answer is always building up the community supports needed to help children avoid contact with - and the harms caused by - the criminal legal system in the first place."
Media contacts:
Thomas Feng
Acting Engagement Director
Human Rights Law Centre
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au