Victorian government abandons promise to raise criminal age to 14 amid youth justice reforms
The Victorian government has walked back its promise to increase the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 in a move that's been described as 'cowardly'. The announcement came as the government unveiled a suite of new laws aimed at reducing youth crime in the state.
Transcript
00:00An about-face 16 months in the making.
00:04I'm pleased to confirm that we have a position where we want to raise the age to 14.
00:09The bill that's before the Legislative Council this week raises the minimum age of criminal
00:14responsibility to 12.
00:16The Andrews Government plan to increase the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to
00:2114 has been scrapped.
00:23This decision has been made at a different time, by a different government, with a different
00:28Premier.
00:29The decision was slammed by youth justice advocates.
00:33We certainly feel as though this decision is treacherous to our children and our communities.
00:41We are going to see children as young as 10, until the law gets raised to at least 12,
00:47being entwined in the criminal legal system and unfortunately we are going to continue
00:52to see more victims of crime.
00:54It's part of the Government's Youth Justice Bill, aimed at reducing what police say is
00:58a concerning increase in crimes committed by young people.
01:02This is targeting those people that the community is in uproar about.
01:06Other reforms include a new bail test, which will make it harder for children deemed an
01:11unacceptable risk to be remanded.
01:14A new offence for children who commit a serious crime on bail will be created, a new taskforce
01:19focused on reducing youth crime will be established and ankle bracelets tracking youth offenders
01:25will be trialled.
01:26Strengthening where we need to around that high risk serious offending, but also too,
01:33looking at how we can divert young people away from a life of crime because that we
01:38know is also what keeps the community safe.
01:41The Government's amendments to the Youth Justice Bill are unpopular with both sides of politics.
01:46Some progressives on the crossbench say they go too far, while the Liberal opposition say
01:51they don't go far enough.
01:53Debate on the bill is expected to go well into the night on sitting days this week and
01:57if the bill doesn't get up, it will come at a significant political cost to the Government.