Thursday, 31 August 2023

Ministers statements: youth justice system

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:24): In my youth justice portfolio our core objectives are keeping the community safe whilst helping those young people in our care turn their lives around. As a government, we do not want young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. That is why we are investing in diversion and early intervention programs to discourage children from offending behaviour. The expert evidence tells us that holistic family-centred programs can play a key role in the rehabilitation of young people, addressing the root causes of offending. Two youth justice programs that do this are the multisystemic therapy and functional family therapy programs. Since 2019 we have directly invested over $14.5 million into these programs. I want to thank our partners at OzChild and Anglicare Victoria for their hard work and dedication in delivering these targeted programs.

These are just two examples. They are part of more than $2 billion invested since 2014 to overhaul our youth justice system and drive better outcomes for young people and the community. This investment is working. Victoria has the lowest rate of young people in custody in the nation. We have one of the lowest rates of Aboriginal young people in custody. It is no surprise that the numbers in custody are around the lowest they have been for almost 20 years. Through investing in our system and by investing in programs like multisystemic therapy and functional family therapy, we can prevent young people from entering the youth justice system. And when they do, we can take action to ensure that a young person’s first interaction with the youth justice system is also their last. Solutions that help young people turn their lives around and keep the community safe are something we should all be supporting.