Wednesday, 8 February 2023

Youth justice system

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:41): (24) My question today is for the Minister for Youth Justice. Minister, priority 2.4 of the government’s youth strategy says that you will:

Expand supports for young people aged 10 to 13 years in … the youth justice system.

However, it has now been revealed there were 72 fewer youth justice workers in 2022 than in 2021. How are these cuts to the number of workers consistent with expanding support for young people in Victoria’s youth justice system?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:41): I thank the member for their question and their interest in matters of youth justice. Dr Bach has had a longstanding interest in youth justice and young people, so I appreciate his question because it gives me an opportunity to talk about our government. I do not agree with the broad premise that our government has less youth justice workers since being elected as a government. Since getting elected we have actually increased the number of people working in the sector. But I think his question is about what we are doing in the youth justice space.

What we are doing is investing in youth justice in our state. We have invested in, obviously, state-of-the-art facilities. We have invested in new facilities and infrastructure at Cherry Creek. We obviously have a number of extra staff at these facilities in terms of infrastructure and staffing. But if he is alluding to some sort of labour shortage or he believes that there are openings in the labour market, it is fair to say that we are in a very tight labour market across the country, not just in youth justice. The last time I checked, the unemployment rate in our state was 3.5 per cent, and in regional Victoria it is 2.8 per cent.

It is important to understand that our youth justice workers do amazing work. The important and rewarding work that they do provides a career path for people that want to help young people in our state turn their lives around, because that is the primary goal of our youth justice system. It is about keeping Victorians safe but also giving young people an opportunity to break the cycle of reoffending. We are doing that and it is a rewarding job, and I commend the staff that do that work.

But in terms of vacancies that he may be alluding to, we are operating in a tight labour market. The youth justice sector is hiring, like many other sectors, but it was only just last year that Mr Davis and I were talking about labour shortages in the events and tourism sector. So it should come as no surprise that with a 3.5 per cent unemployment rate our government is clearly doing something right – 2.8 in regional Victoria, the lowest in the nation. I will leave my answer there.

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:44): I do thank the minister for his response. By way of supplementary: Minister, these cuts to youth justice workers – 72 fewer youth justice workers in Victoria in 2022 than in 2021 – have seen important education and mental health programs also abandoned. How is the abandonment of programs for those within the youth justice system consistent with your commitment to expanding support for young people?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:44): I thank the member for their question and their interest in this area. Again I just wish to state from the beginning that I do not agree with the premise that there are cuts in the sector. In fact the shadow minister in this space himself alluded to record –

Matthew Bach: On a point of order, President – my apologies to the minister for cutting him off – I know that he made this assertion in his first response. It is in relation to I think it is 8.07 of our standing orders, at part (1), where it is necessitated that ministers are factual. The minister seems to be arguing the point. It is a simple fact there are 72 fewer youth justice workers now than in 2021.

The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. The minister was answering the question and has a right to dispute any assertions as well.

Enver ERDOGAN: I will answer the question. Like I said, I just do not accept that there are cuts. In fact it was the shadow minister that talked about our record investment, and I will note that the opposition, with all due respect, talk about costs in the sector whereas we talk about investment in the sector. On the one hand you cannot write op-eds lamenting the large amounts of investment we are making in youth justice and then on the other hand come in here and talk about cuts to the sector. We are making record amounts of investment. If the member would say there are vacancies in youth justice, I would accept that premise because of course we are hiring and we are delivering more newer, modern facilities. These are facilities that cater not only to the traditional, I guess, youth justice facility that you may have in mind but these are multidisciplinary, they have medical, they have vocational services – (Time expired)