My matter is for the Minister for Youth Justice; however, it does potentially traverse multiple portfolios, so I would understand and appreciate if he chose to redirect some of it to another minister on my behalf. It follows the new youth justice sentencing proposals advanced this week by the Sentencing Advisory Council. I have a number of points of interest in and concerns about those proposals. In particular I am concerned that they are not striking the right balance at either end of the spectrum.
Firstly, on behalf of very many constituents I do not believe there is justification for recommending discounted sentences for some instances of youth offending. This would be a counterproductive step and would likely only weaken the principle that even young offenders must be held accountable for very serious crimes, especially in an era when Victoria continues to have deeply entrenched problems with young criminals and crime gangs.
Secondly, I am concerned that the Sentencing Advisory Council’s ideas underplay the full importance and role of early intervention and primary prevention in discouraging and curbing youth offending. Whilst I do not necessarily disagree that there is potentially a useful role for a Children’s Court to play in the future, we need to first establish more measures and supports that deter children from all offending. That not only includes strengthening the responsiveness of the state’s child protection system to keep more children safe and to put them back on the right path in life; it also means working proactively rather than reactively to the needs of vulnerable families and their children.
All too often historically in Victoria we have acted too late, and the upshot of trauma endured through the formative years of many young people’s lives has proven to be criminal activity—criminal activity, that is, that could have been prevented potentially through earlier and more active interventions. Of course, as I made clear earlier this week in my non-government business motion, I would also like to think that any Children’s Court would be presided over by magistrates and judges who are particularly skilled in the fields most relevant to cases that would come before that court.
The action I therefore seek is clarification of the government’s response to the Sentencing Advisory Council’s publicly released proposal of 2 June. As part of that I would also be grateful for an explanation of the actions, including direct spending, that the government is currently taking in order to deliver primary prevention and early intervention programs that are specifically aimed at reducing youth offending.
