Foreign police on the force, more children to face adult courts under Coalition pledge on crime

The Coalition has pledged to significantly expand the Victorian government’s crackdown on young offenders if elected in November, saying youth criminals who commit serious offences, including burglary and serious assault, would also be sentenced as adults in court.

The plan would extend the Allan government’s “adult crime, adult time” laws – which cover eight offences – to include 12 more crimes, while leaving the door open to further expand the list.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said that under the Coalition’s policy, breach of bail would become a more serious offence and the youth exemption would be removed to ensure young offenders who breach their conditions are subject to the same penalties as adults.

The 12 additional “uplifted” offences would be subject to the current one-strike bail rule, meaning any offender on bail who commits another indictable offence would not enjoy the presumption of bail. The breach of bail offence would also be upgraded to a more serious classification.

The maximum jail sentence that can be imposed in the Children’s Court is three years for any single offence. However, the Coalition’s plan would mean children charged with the additional 12 crimes facing adult maximum penalties.

Wilson said the stronger bail and sentencing laws back the work Victoria Police was doing to hold offenders to account.

“Labor’s weak laws and revolving-door bail system are putting dangerous offenders back on the street and continuing the cycle of crime,” she said. “The system must change.”

Shadow attorney-general James Newbury said Labor’s recent changes were a “weak, watered-down version” of what had been successfully implemented in Queensland.

“Victorians have had enough of living in fear in their own homes and communities,” he said.

“We are not ruling out adding further offences because we are going to get really tough on criminals.”

The 12 additional crimes are burglary, serious assault, causing serious injury, manslaughter, rape, attempted rape, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson, trafficking a large commercial quantity of drugs, and offences against children including trafficking.

The Allan Labor government has already introduced stringent laws targeting youth offenders following record-high crime rates last year.

Reforms that took effect in December mean children as young as 14 can face life imprisonment for eight specific offences: aggravated home invasion, home invasion, intentionally causing injury in circumstances of gross violence (including machete crimes), recklessly causing injury in circumstances of gross violence (including machete crimes), aggravated carjacking, carjacking, aggravated burglary (serious and repeated), and armed robbery (serious and repeated).

From March, the final tranche of Labor’s bail changes also came into effect, meaning anyone on bail for an indictable offence who reoffends now faces a legal presumption against their release.

The Coalition’s latest crime announcement follows a separate pledge by Wilson to hire an additional 3000 police officers – half of whom would be recruited from overseas.

Under the plan – based on a scheme running in Western Australia – experienced officers from Britain, Ireland and New Zealand would be recruited to Victoria and offered relocation allowances of $5000 each.

On Sunday, Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny criticised the new Coalition police policy.

“What this announcement is, is just a one policy strategy of a Liberal leader who is running scared in Nepean right now,” she said.

“It was this government that has made a record investment into police … including an additional 3600 police officers, and we are working with the chief commissioner as he reworks his police operations to ensure that more police are out on the beat.

“We have more police out on the streets here in Victoria than another other state or territory across the nation.”

Kilkenny said the government crime policy changes were having an impact, with remand numbers and bail revocations at a record high.

“We’re starting to see that crime stats turn around, and that’s a good sign of progress,” she said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.