‘We’re cooked’: Young offender reacts to Allan’s violent youth crackdown
A youth offender who poses with machetes and shares posts from inside stolen cars has offered a blunt reaction to Jacinta Allan’s move to get tough on violent teen crims, as the Premier issued a rebuke of Victoria’s Children’s Court.
A youth offender, who regularly shares photos of himself posing with machetes and posts vision from inside stolen cars, has made a blunt assessment of Allan’s major youth crime reforms.
“We’re cooked,” he said online.
It comes after the Premier issued a rebuke of Victoria’s Children’s Court, saying a new push to funnel violent young offenders into the adult system was driven by “too many” victims of crime telling her “there are not enough consequences”.
Ms Allan on Wednesday sidestepped multiple questions about whether the Children’s Court had failed to issue sentences that met community expectations, but noted her latest youth crime crackdown was driven by feedback from victims of violent offending.
“Too many victims keep telling me that there are not enough consequences,” she said.
“This is about recognising that there needs to be and must be consequences for children who commit these violent crimes.”
As reported in the Herald Sun on Wednesday, serious youth criminals who have been terrorising Melbourne will be tried in the adult court system and could face up to life in prison instead of the current maximum three years, under bold new reforms.
Life in prison will be the maximum jail sentence for aggravated home invasion and aggravated carjacking, while other serious offences will carry up to between 20 and 25 years.
Announcing the radical changes, Ms Allan apologised to victims of youth crime and accepted some blame for the crisis.
She began her press conference by reading an email from a victim of a violent home invasion whose husband was stabbed three times.
“Today I want to acknowledge as Premier that every one of these violent youth crimes has a victim, a family that has had their life disrupted, a person that was shaken, a person who was hurt, and we are all horrified by these violent, brazen youth crimes, and the devastating impact they have on its victims,” she said.
“When I’ve met with too many victims of crime, I have apologised directly to them for the trauma and the devastating experience they have had.
“And I do apologise.”
Under the reforms, children aged 14 and above who commit violent serious crimes will face adult sentences in adult courts.
Currently, adult criminals can be sentenced in the County Court to up to 25 years for home invasion and 20 years for machete attacks, while in the Children’s Court the maximum sentence for any offence is three years.
Under the legislation, which is still be drafted, cases of aggravated home invasions, home invasions, intentionally causing injury in circumstances of gross violence, recklessly causing injury in circumstances of gross violence – including machete attacks – and aggravated carjacking involving children aged 14 to 17, will be sent straight to the County Court, with the exception of a small number of 14-year-olds who may be sent to the Children’s Court.
Carjacking offences will also be heard in the County Court unless there are “compelling and substantial reasons” for the case to stay in the Children’s Court.
The Premier promised to introduce the legislation to parliament before the end of the year which leaves less than three sitting weeks to get it passed.
This means the changes are unlikely to come into play until next year.
The government is seeking guidance on whether two further offences of aggravated burglary and armed robbery – if serious and repeated – can also be heard in the adult court.
The County Court will receive extra judges and resources to keep up with the expected influx of youth offenders.
Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said she was confident the adult court system would hand jail time to these violent youth offenders because its purpose was “punishment”.
“The Children’s Court is a court that is designed with the primary purpose around rehabilitation,” she said.
“In the adult court, the purpose, of course, is on deterrence and punishment.”
Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan said there was still “significant headroom” in youth detention.
“I can report that we have 175 people in the youth justice system at the moment (and) we have 256 beds,” he said.
Battin: ‘An absolute joke’
Liberal Opposition leader Brad Battin slammed the Allan government on Wednesday after it emerged the sweeping reforms has not been finished written, saying the government was trying to feed the community “absolute shit”.
“I’m sorry you can’t come out with a media release and not have the legislation written to protect Victorians,” he said.
“That is an absolute joke.
“This is the absolute highlight of the absolute shit this government feeds the community.”
The government has promised that it will introduce its “Adult Time for Violent Crime” bill before the end of parliament this year, but on Wednesday morning Jacinta Allan said “this bill is being drafted right now”.
Ms Allan’s proposed reform looks substantially similar to the Queensland Liberal-National Party government’s Adult Crime, Adult Time crackdown, which started late last year.
Since the introduction of the Queensland reforms victim numbers across nine major crime categories dropped by almost 10,000 people in the state.
However, Shadow Attorney-General James Newbury said the Allan government had “ripped out” the substance from Queensland’s legislation.
“What I can say is the government appears to be proposing a law that rips the guts out of what was implemented in Queensland, and the government appears to be proposing a set of laws that cover five crimes,” he said.
“Whereas in Queensland, it was 33.”
Those offences include drug offences whereas the Victorian government’s reforms only include violent offences.
Mr Newbury accused Ms Allan of having “done a deal” with the left faction of her party.
“She’s been rolled by her team and she’s got the headline, she’s got the announcement, she’s got the line,” he said.
“It’s just, it’s not going to solve the problem like everything else she does with crime.”
Mr Newbury was asked if the Coalition would still support the passage of the legislation, and said his party would “look at it closely”.
‘Terrorise staff’: Retailers welcome crackdown
Members of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores are constantly met with armed youth offenders during terrifying robberies.
Chief executive Theo Foukkare said the reforms would help protect his members from the ongoing violence.
“They come in swinging with weapons and they mentally and physically terrorise staff and other customers,” he said.
“(The reforms are) something we’ve supported in other states, and I commend the Allan Government for this hard line approach.”
Youth advocates slam policy
Youth advocates immediately hit out at the new policy.
Victoria Legal Aid chief executive Toby Hemming raised serious concerns over the move, saying there was “no need” for more children to face an adult court.
“Every year Victoria Legal Aid represents thousands of children in the youth justice system who have experienced deep trauma, disadvantage or injustice,” he said.
“Some have committed violent crimes, and many have been victims of crime themselves.
“These children are in urgent need of support to help them build stable, positive lives and avoid reoffending, which the adult justice system is not designed to do.”
Mr Hemming acknowledged the “serious offending and the significant harm” caused by youth offenders but said the government should focus on rehabilitation.
Victoria Legal Aid Criminal Law Executive Director Kate Bundrock said children were not adults and should not be treated the same.
“This does not mean there are no consequences, but that the consequences and approach need to be appropriate for children and support their rehabilitation,” she said.
“The evidence is clear that the younger a child is when they first receive a custodial sentence, the greater their chances of reoffending.
“And the more time a young person spends in jail, the more likely they are to return.
Leading South Sudanese criminal lawyer Daniel Ajak labelled the proposed laws “terrible” and “extremely dangerous”.
Mr Ajak said he believed that the move would fail to deter youth offenders, suggesting similar laws in the US and UK had not worked.
“The new proposed changes only affect young kids from marginalised communities, First Nations Australians, African Australians and those in our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods,” he said.
“One has to look at the history of incarceration with First Nations people in this state and in the country to see the damage and the harm that mass incarceration of disadvantaged communities only causes more harm than good.
“Why not invest in crime prevention programs by actually providing supports to kids at home, at school, at their place of work, at the community sport clubs.”
Vicki Mau, Executive Director of 54 Reasons said locking up children would be ineffective and a violation of child rights.
“It goes against all available evidence about the best way to reduce children’s contact with the system. To claim that locking up kids potentially for life keeps the community safe is nothing more than a smokescreen,” Ms Mau said.
“We understand the genuine concerns about community safety, everyone deserves to feel safe and be safe in their homes and neighbourhoods, including children and young people themselves.
“However, while locking a child away might feel like action, it doesn’t actually fix the problem. It just delays it, making it likely to reappear another day,” she said.
The announcement marks a significant turnaround in Labor’s law and order policies over the past two and a half years.
Victoria had followed an approach of softening law-and-order policies for young people under former premier Daniel Andrews, which saw the age of criminal responsibility raised from 10 to 12 years.
When Ms Allan came to power in late 2023, she decided to quietly ditch a previous promise to raise the age to 14.
Greens justice spokeswoman Katherine Copsey called the new reform an “astonishing capitulation” from the Allan government.
“It’s an admission that she is either incapable or unwilling of putting forward justice policy that would make our state safer.
“Experts are crying out for a government that will invest in prevention and diversion for young people rather than cutting those programs.”
Originally published as ‘We’re cooked’: Young offender reacts to Allan’s violent youth crackdown
Shocking housing report reveals Allan government’s ‘new low’
