The Victorian Greens have accused Labor and the Liberals of competing to see who can lock up more children, warning that their escalating tough-on-crime policies will disproportionately harm First Nations children and children from marginalised backgrounds while failing to address the causes of youth offending.
The Liberals have announced plans to send children as young as 14 to prison-style boot camps, just days after Labor unveiled a $204 million scheme that could see children detained for up to 12 months for offences including theft and vandalism.
Both parties are promising harsher punishment instead of investing in the early intervention and support services that can prevent offending in the first place.
The Victorian Greens’ $1 billion community safety plan focuses on preventing youth crime before it happens, rather than locking up more children. The plan would invest in early intervention, youth diversion and community-led programs to keep young people out of the justice system, alongside expanded mental health, housing, alcohol and drug treatment services to address the underlying causes of offending.
As stated by Victorian Greens Spokesperson for Justice, Katherine Copsey MLC:
“Labor and the Liberals are locked in a grotesque competition to see who can announce the cruellest headline and lock up the most children.
“Jess Wilson wants to send kids to prison boot camps to do farm labour. Ben Carroll wants to lock them up for a year and call it therapy. Neither has a serious plan to stop children entering the justice system in the first place.
“Labor has had 12 years to tackle the poverty, disadvantage and systemic failures that push children into the justice system. Instead, it wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars locking them up.
“You cannot punish a child out of poverty, imprison them out of trauma, or give them a better future by putting them behind bars. Youth crime is a government failure.”
As stated by Anasina Gray-Barberio, Victorian Greens Spokesperson for Multiculturalism and Anti-racism:
“Let’s be clear about who will pay the price for this cruelty. First Nations children are already grossly overrepresented in the youth justice system, and Labor and the Liberals are proposing to throw even more of them behind bars.
“There is an ugly, racist undercurrent to this entire law-and-order election campaign. Politicians are whipping up fear about crime to justify locking up more children, knowing full well that First Nations children and children of colour will bear the brunt.
“One Nation is openly peddling fear and division, and instead of standing up to that politics, Labor and the Liberals are scrambling to outdo them. They’re not confronting the far right. They’re borrowing its playbook.”
