Shannon Deery: Crime crisis tearing apart Victoria is also splitting Allan govt

That Jacinta Allan has put the machete ban back on the agenda shows she is serious about listening to both the electorate, and her colleagues — but cracks in her government on the youth crime crisis are starting to show.

Victoria’s youth crime crisis isn’t just ripping at the fabric of our society, it’s tearing the Allan government in two.

Ministerial frustration over the government’s go-slow response is now threatening the very stability and discipline required to address the scourge.

The cracks have been evident for some time.

A fortnight ago police minister Anthony Carbines publicly contradicted Jacinta Allan just hours after she announced a review into bail laws.

A fortnight ago police minister Anthony Carbines publicly contradicted Jacinta Allan just hours after she announced a review into bail laws. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Review? Not needed, Carbines said, given he had a bottom drawer full of solutions.

That he has a drawer full of solutions ready to go speaks to the rift that has been driven through Jacinta Allan’s Cabinet.

On one side, MPs who are desperate to open the drawer, act now and come down hard on young crims.

On the other side, MPs who want more reviews, a cautious approach, and a measured softly-softly response.

That she has been promising action for so long suggests Allan, despite any private views she holds, is on the side of caution.

And with Victorians screaming for answers, and looking to their government for action, her colleagues are now questioning her political judgement.

Her intervention this week to remove from a Cabinet meeting a discussion about outlawing machetes outraged some colleagues.

If everything is on the table, as the Premier has so often insisted, why not this?

Labor’s polling is at record lows and they are facing the prospect of an electoral thumping at next year’s general election.

If that’s not enough to focus the government’s attention into swift action, one wonders what is.

Jacinta Allan’s decision to remove from a Cabinet meeting a discussion about outlawing machetes outraged some colleagues. Picture: David Geraghty

Police and government ministers blame lax laws and soft justice for contributing to the worsening crisis.

Victorians, and increasingly some MPs, blame the government itself for failing to heed private warnings from police and relaxing bail laws.

Privately Allan is seething at a string of judicial decisions that have let loose high-risk offenders back on to the streets, free to continue consequence-free rampages.

In parliament on Thursday she said changing the law was her focus, and no one’s home should be the scene of a crime.

Platitudes from politicians are thoughtful gestures, but thoughts don’t save people.

Government policy does.

That Allan has put the machete ban back on the agenda shows she is serious about listening to both the electorate, and her colleagues.

And she has to.

Now more than ever Victorians want clear and honest answers to the problem of your crime.

Without that, the government looks neither on top of the issue, or with the capacity to effectively deal with it.