Victoria’s new bail laws risk making the state’s crime problem worse by increasing the chances of young people reoffending, the state’s outgoing children’s commissioner has warned.
Liana Buchanan, who finishes up next week as Victoria’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, told The Age she had witnessed major improvements during her nine years in the role. But she said there were still significant issues to overcome, including the “mind-boggling” exploitation of children in residential care.
Liana Buchanan, Victoria’s Commissioner for Children and Young People.Credit: Justin McManus
Buchanan said she was distressed by the approach taken in the Allan government’s bail reforms, the first stage of which passed parliament in the early hours of Friday morning.
The laws have immediately reintroduced the crime of committing an indictable offence while on bail and breaching bail conditions. Bail will also become less likely for offences such as aggravated burglary, home invasion, carjacking and armed robbery because of more stringent tests.
Buchanan said Victoria’s approach to bringing down the youth crime rate did not appear informed by evidence, and there was an “absolute risk” the laws would make the issue worse.
“We jump to simplistic responses that might make people feel better in the short term, but I think the evidence shows will not actually help bring down youth crime in the long term or even the medium term,” she said.
Advocates rallied against the new legislation at state parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Justin McManus
The state government accepts their laws will increase the number of people in detention and on remand.
Premier Jacinta Allan argued in this masthead that access to rehabilitation programs can be a meaningful intervention. The laws have been staggered to allow time to recruit more corrections staff.
Buchanan said while there was access to some programs and education in custody, both were compromised whenever there were pressures on the system, such as staff shortages or facility lockdowns.
“People who think that time on remand will help a young person to rehabilitate, I wish they could go in and see what life in custody is like,” she said.
“The evidence is very, very clear, they are more likely to come out either after a period on remand or after sentence and reoffend than had they been channelled through another path.”
The state needs to do a better job intervening with at-risk children early, such as when a child protection order was made or when they were no longer attending school, the commissioner said.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin, whose Coalition helped to pass Labor’s bail laws and argues they need to go further, said on Thursday there were better outcomes from early intervention.
“If you want to reduce the impact of crime, start to get young people when they’re at risk,” he said.
“Stop waiting for them to come into the justice system. The best programs used to operate here, Victoria, they’re all gone, because of the funding cuts.”
Opposition Leader Brad Battin.Credit: Christopher Hopkins
Battin said it cost $6000 a day to keep a young person in youth justice, which he said over a year equated to the cost of sending 40 children to Scotch College.
Buchanan said more than half the young people in custody have been the subject of a child protection order at some point in their life.
This means a report has not only been made about their welfare, but it has been investigated, substantiated and court action has been taken.
“The risk that these reforms will be capturing children who are themselves victims … I find it really distressing,” she said.
Buchanan said Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence, which handed down its final report a month before she started her role, had changed the way the state thinks about caring for children.
“[But] I still see child death inquiries, and others that we do, where the risk to children of family violence has been underestimated,” she said.
“In the worst of those cases, the children are killed. I still see cases where children are known to be living in family violence and the subject of report after report to child protection, and each one of those reports is closed.”
“We like to think of ourselves as a society that really values children and nurtures children.
“I struggle to see that translating into election priorities, or any kind of community pressure on governments. I do wish we had broader community understanding about what’s happening for children and then some corresponding pressure on any political party to do, to do better.”
A Victorian government spokesperson thanked Buchanan for her service in the role and acknowledged there was more to do.
“We have listened to victims of crime and Victorians, and we have acted – we must protect Victorians from the most serious kind of repeat, high harm offending,” the spokesperson said.
“The safety of children is our number one priority, which is why we have made significant reforms to improve the outcomes of vulnerable children and families.”
One particular concern for Buchanan is the rate of sexual exploitation and abuse for children in residential care. In April 2023, she warned organised crime figures and predators were routinely abusing children in care and 165 minors had been sexually exploited within less than two years.
“It should be something as a state we are outraged about,” she said.
“It is mind-boggling that as a fairly civilised, well-resourced state, we will allow that to happen.
“They’re out of sight and out of mind. That makes it pretty hard work to get government to invest in improved responses for them.”