The Victorian government has walked away from its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, as pressure mounts on Labor to do more to deal with violent youth crime.
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00:00The headline from this announcement today is that, as you mentioned, the government
00:05is walking back from its commitment to increase the age of criminal responsibility from 10
00:10to 14.
00:11Now, that is significant because the previous premier, Daniel Andrews, had committed to
00:16introducing that by 2027, even touting it as the most progressive laws when it came
00:21to youth crime in the country.
00:24Today, a backflip from the Labor government.
00:26They'll increase it to 12, but won't increase it to 14, which will be contentious amongst
00:31the crossbench, but we'll get to that a little bit later on.
00:33In terms of the other aspects of the bill, well, they'll introduce tougher bail laws.
00:39What does that mean?
00:40Well, they said today that it'll be harder for youth offenders who have committed serious
00:44crimes to be released out on bail.
00:48And it's deemed that there are more significant risks of committing these serious crimes,
00:52such as carjackings, car robberies and violent robbery offences, then it's likely that they
00:58won't receive bail.
01:00In addition to that, they've introduced a new task force called COBRA, which will focus
01:07on reducing youth offenders and the amount of crimes committed by youth offenders across
01:13the state.
01:14Now, this is all part of a suite of changes that the government is introducing after serious
01:21pressure has been mounting on the government after a number of crimes were allegedly committed
01:26by youth offenders, including what police say, crimes that resulted in the deaths of
01:31three Victorians.
01:32Now, as we discuss the changes or the backflips by the state government today, the Premier
01:39Jacinta Allen was somewhat magnanimous, for lack of a better phrase.
01:44She said that those changes that were proposed by the Andrews government were, it was, she
01:49described it as a different government and a different Premier, and that these laws were
01:54focused on the victims, but also the children that were committing these crimes as well.
01:59Let's have a listen to the Premier.
02:02We're delivering already a number of reforms that will make a real and important difference.
02:07More investment in education and employment programs, helping more young people to participate
02:12in treatment and rehabilitation programs.
02:15New changes too, that mean victims can confront the youth offenders, giving victims a stronger
02:21voice and also youth offenders an understanding about the impact of their crime on victims
02:28of crime.
02:30These reforms deliver action at both ends of the spectrum, taking that whole of justice
02:34system response.
02:36The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service hasn't missed with its criticism of the government.
02:40It described it as a treacherous backflip, saying that it's bowed to the pressure of
02:44tabloid media here in Victoria and won't be supporting the changes under any circumstances.
02:51From a legislative standpoint, well, the Greens have also been heavily critical of this move
02:56not to, I guess, stick to its commitment of increasing the age of criminal responsibility
03:02and it won't be voting for them in the Parliament.
03:04That's significant because the Liberal opposition here have said that they actually don't support
03:10any increase.
03:11So the government going from 10 to 12, they don't support that either.
03:14So the government needs the support of the Greens and the opposition to get this bill
03:18through the upper house.
03:19As it stands now, both parties are seemingly completely in opposition to the bill.
03:25There's also been criticism from other youth justice advocates who say that the bill goes
03:31too far, there's too much influence from the police in these bills and not enough emphasis
03:36on rehabilitation of the people actually committing these crimes.
03:40So it's a bit of a wait and see as to whether this bill will pass the Parliament.
03:43Look, the government is confident, there may be a few amendments along the way, but as
03:49I said, it's a wait and see game here.