NewsBite

Deery: Premier’s new push on bail laws may be too little too late for voters

It’s taken diabolical polling on the eve of a critical by-election to force Jacinta Allan to concede that more must be done about the state’s worsening crime crisis.

Youth brags about crime in Victoria

Funny how a looming election and catastrophic polling can focus the mind.

For more than 12 months Victorians have been screaming about the perception of a worsening crime crisis.

The government has been dogged by a surge in youth crime, tobacco wars and increasingly brazen public displays of bikie warfare playing out on our streets.

It has repeatedly hosed down concerns, living in a state of political denial about crime in this state.

And yet the facts are indisputable.

Offences committed by children aged 10-17 have hit their highest levels in more than a decade.

Jacinta Allan has kept her head in the sand for too long. Picture: David Crosling
Jacinta Allan has kept her head in the sand for too long. Picture: David Crosling

Last year, there were 23,810 incidents – an increase of 16.9 per cent in just 12 months.

The number of residential aggravated burglaries committed by offenders 10 to 17 years old has surged almost 1000 per cent since Labor came to power.

It means teens are now breaking into a home on average three times a day, compared with once every three days a decade ago.

And it includes hundreds of offences by children aged 12 to 14 over the past 12 months.

There are countless examples of teen criminals running riot across our state.

Like the teens who hit and killed William Taylor on his way home from soccer practice.

They were bailed.

Or the teens who hit and killed 19-year-old motorcyclist Davide Pollina.

They were bailed.

Or the teen charged with more than 350 offences who was bailed, and bailed, and bailed.

The answer is not to simply look up every kid criminal or young accused.

But for too long Jacinta Allan has kept her head in the sand, refusing to take seriously the concerns of Victorians.

She hasn’t been completely inflexible.

Youth crime has surged to staggering levels in Victoria. Picture: Nadir Kinani
Youth crime has surged to staggering levels in Victoria. Picture: Nadir Kinani

Proposed youth justice reforms were watered down while youth bail laws were hardened.

But it’s taken diabolical polling on the eve of a critical by-election to force the concession that more needs to be done.

The opposition will, of course, lean heavily into this issue.

But it should do so with caution, given the lessons learned from its disastrous 2018 election campaign.

A Liberal Party review of that election found that law and order became too big a focus of the campaign.

And post-election market research found just 6 per cent of voters claimed it actually influenced their vote.

And it didn’t necessarily swing them toward the Liberals.

The Premier has repeatedly shown she’s more than willing to change stance on controversial policy positions.

She’s pivoted on duck hunting and a second injecting room, wound back youth justice reforms and watered down the state’s war on gas.

But in conceding more needs to be done on bail, voters may decide it’s too little too late.

Shannon Deery
Shannon DeeryState Politics Editor

Shannon Deery is the Herald Sun's state political editor. He joined the paper in 2007 and covered courts and crime before joining the politics team in 2020.

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/deery-labor-needs-to-harden-stance-on-bail-laws-if-they-plan-on-winning-this-election/news-story/bde3a0c3b9d933b8c3c7c818024616a5