Backlash as premier vows longer jail time for kids
William Ton, Callum Godde and Rachael Ward |
A premier has promised laws to sentence children as adults for brazen crimes, in a move that’s been widely condemned.
Victoria’s Labor government has adopted “adult time for violent crime” laws, echoing a controversial policy of Queensland’s Liberal-National government.
Under the legislation, children 14 and over who commit home invasions, aggravated home invasion, recklessly or intentionally causing injury and aggravated carjacking must be dealt with in the County Court.
Carjacking, aggravated burglary and armed robbery cases would be sentenced outside of the Children’s Court in certain circumstances.
Kids as young as 14 convicted of aggravated home invasion and aggravated carjacking would face a maximum sentence of life in prison under the plan.
The principle of jail as a last resort for children would also be dumped and judges obliged to prioritise community safety in their sentencing decisions.
The laws will be introduced to parliament before the end of 2025, but no date has been provided for when they will take effect.
Victoria has been in the grip of surging crime rates, with criminal offences spiking by 15.7 per cent in the year to mid-2025, fuelled by thefts, home invasions and repeat youth offenders.
Premier Jacinta Allan read aloud a letter she had received from a woman whose husband was stabbed three times trying to stop a 16-year-old trying to steal a car from their neighbour’s garage.
She offered an apology to victims.
“I do apologise and that is why we are taking this action today,” the Labor leader told reporters.
The premier said 34 per cent of children are sentenced to jail for aggravated home invasion or aggravated carjacking in the Children’s Court.
The number rises to 97 per cent for children convicted of the same offences in adult courts.
Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the government’s ideological shift recognised “consequences count” but added the “devil will be in the detail”.
He noted increasing the maximum penalty for a serious offence would not necessarily move the needle on average sentences and declared broader sentencing reform was desperately needed.
“The way people are sentenced in higher courts as well as the sentencing range applied by the judiciary is an underlying, unaddressed issue,” Mr Gatt said.
Lawyers, human rights leaders and Aboriginal advocates queued up to condemn the move, declaring it wasn’t backed by evidence.
“We can’t just lock children and young people away and hope for a safer community,” acting Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People Argiri Alisandratos said.
Liberty Victoria said the laws risked breaching the state’s obligations under international law, while the Human Rights Law Centre said they would only serve as an attempt at cheap political point scoring.
The shake-up would disproportionately affect young Aboriginal people who were already over-represented in the legal system, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight said.
Resources should instead be directed to early intervention programs, she said.
“Victoria is competing with other jurisdictions on how cruel it can be and this announcement certainly proves that we are winning at that,” she told AAP.
Queensland implemented its “adult crime, adult time” laws in response to a 17-year-old teenager fatally stabbing mother Emma Lovell in a Boxing Day home invasion in 2022.
The laws were expanded in May to cover 33 serious offences, including attempted murder, rape, attempted rape and torture.
United Nations special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards and special rapporteur on Indigenous peoples’ rights Albert Barume blasted the laws as “incompatible with basic child rights”.
The Allan government is keen to squash crime as a potentially election-defining issue as it seeks a historic fourth term in November 2026.
The Greens accused the Victorian government of importing “failed policies” from interstate, while the opposition labelled the plan a “watered down” version of Queensland’s laws.
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