Victorian Premier joins Fifi Box on air with huge promise after being put on blast two weeks ago

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has appeared on Fifi Box’s show with a huge promise after the radio star put her on blast over Melbourne’s crime wave.

Melbourne media personality Fifi Box had Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on her radio show on Wednesday after refusing to interview the leader on air two weeks ago.

A furious and deeply concerned Box had raged about Melbourne’s troubling crime wave, taking aim at Ms Allan.

Her breakfast show, Fifi, Fev & Nick even started a petition calling for bail reform for repeat offenders in Victoria, gaining more than 100,000 signatures.

“A few of our producers, they said ‘do you want to get Jacinta Allan on, the Premier?’. I’m going to be very transparent here, I said absolutely not,” Box said on February 26.

“I have no interest in what she has to say because I watched an interview with her on Sunrise yesterday where one of her suggestions was people might need to start locking their cars, making sure their cars are locked.

“Oh please, that’s 15 years ago. We’ve moved on from locking cars. But she said we need to do more. Here’s the thing, you haven’t, you haven’t done more. This is not just the last few months, this is now years of it.”

Last month news.com.au also highlighted how previously safe suburbs had become crime “epicentres” and a government agency was pulling out of another described as “Disneyland for drug users”.

Ms Allan appeared on Box’s radio show with Brendan Fevola on Wednesday promising “the toughest bail laws in the country” would be introduced to parliament next week. She described the laws as the “toughest bail laws ever”.

She said she had been “listening” to the community and claimed the government had “been acting with urgency” to bring in the laws.

“There’s a combination of factors that lead to that. The first is, we are putting community safety first and foremost in bail decisions,” Ms Allan said.

“And we are also reversing that change where remand or bail was seen as a last resort for youth offending. That’s a key change we can make immediately.

“Also too, we are bringing in tougher tests … tests haven’t been tough enough so we’re toughing those tests to make it harder to get bail.”

Box told Ms Allan she didn’t want her on the show without any change, because “we just couldn’t hear it anymore”.

The Tough Bail Bill is set to be introduced into parliament next Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

Not all Victorians believe the Premier has acted soon enough.

“You would think that the community safety should have been thought of before this moment how ridiculous,” wrote one person.

“Acting with urgency lol, should of been done years ago,” another said.

The Victorian government in August backed out of plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 before passing new youth bail laws.

Ms Allan announced a further review into the state’s bail laws in early February.

Youth crime in Victoria is at its highest levels since 2009.

The rate of youth offences rose 16.9 per cent in the past 12 months but crime data shows the number of offenders has remained stable – revealing a sharp rise in repeat criminals.

Key crimes include aggravated burglaries and car thefts.

“There’s a group of around about 300 children and young people that commit these crimes, and they’re predominantly between the ages of 14 and 17,” Victoria Police Commander Mark Galliott told ABC’s 7.30 last month.

“Of the 300 or so within that group, there’s a group of 20 that commit about 20 or 25 per cent of the total number of offences.”