Bail laws
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:29): (907) My question is to the Minister for Children. In relation to the government’s recent bail reforms, many stakeholders warned of the impact the laws would have, particularly on children in out-of-home care. The majority of children in residential care have significant trauma backgrounds and can exhibit challenging and complex behaviours; already they are often criminalised for behaviour that would not see them criminalised in an ordinary home. We were recently made aware of a young person who broke into a residence’s pantry to get food and was charged with burglary, which was in turn subsequently increased to aggravated burglary because another person was present. The framework to reduce criminalisation of young people in residential care, which has already been implemented in New South Wales, is aimed at developing ways to respond to the behaviours of young residents with proportionality and flexibility and, dare I say it, some care. Can the minister update the house on the progress of the framework’s rollout here in Victoria?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:30): I thank Mr Ettershank for his question. I particularly thank him for the way in which he has phrased his question, which is perhaps indicative of the constructive way in which he seeks to work in relation to these matters more broadly, so I very much appreciate that. I appreciate the nuance of your question as well in that we note that residential care is not a custodial setting; residential care is a home for a vulnerable child, and really the threshold or the key to what we are trying to achieve in these residential care settings is a home environment. To that end we have invested more than $540 million from the 2023–24 budget across the residential care system to improve outcomes for children living in residential care homes. This includes ensuring that all young people in residential care have access to therapeutic supports by 2025–26. Eighty-five per cent have access to them now, and certainly by July of this year the remainder will have access to those. That has been a key achievement of the Allan Labor government.
In relation to the specifics of your question around the framework to reduce the criminalisation of young people in residential care, which was put in place in 2020 and appropriately reviewed along the way, the framework seeks to address the unnecessary and inappropriate contact that children in residential care might have with police by providing guidance for workers to support decision-making about police call-outs to residential care homes as well as additional guidance for police responding to non-crisis incidents in residential care, which, while I will not comment on individual matters, I think speaks to the details that you have shared with the house today. It is certainly a shared commitment across all of the departments of the Victorian government, as well as Victoria Police and non-government partners who work with us in the delivery of residential care.
In relation to the 18-month action plan, I am pleased to advise the house that 31 of the 35 committed actions are now complete. These key actions delivered include youth-appropriate resources which have been developed to inform young people of their rights and their legal supports; and training, including trauma-informed practice and behaviour-support planning for young people at risk of criminalisation. There are two further actions which are also due for completion in 2025, and these relate to the updates to the child protection and youth justice memorandum of understanding and the practice guide, which are currently being finalised with the Department of Justice and Community Safety, but they are I am advised on track to be completed within 2025.
It is also important to note that there is a framework of oversight and evaluation that the decriminalisation framework is subject to – (Time expired)
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:34): I thank the minister for her response. In terms of my supplementary, you may have covered this in part, but I will kick it into play anyway. In another instance of children being criminalised for behaviour that would be dealt with quite differently in a normal home, we know that police are charging young people in residential care for offences such as property damage and such as the one I mentioned previously, so that the department can claim the insurance on damage to the property. What steps is the government taking to ensure that children are not being criminalised to save on property maintenance expenses?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:34): Thank you, Mr Ettershank, for your supplementary question. I think the very existence of the framework to reduce the criminalisation of young people in residential care in and of itself speaks to that issue and many of the others that you have directly raised or alluded to in your question. The framework clearly is set up to avoid unnecessary and inappropriate contact with police. It is about providing guidance for workers to support decision-making about police call-outs to residential care homes and additional guidance for police responding to non-crisis incidents in residential care. It is also a shared commitment, as I have said, between government departments and Victoria Police. Indeed I was having a conversation in relation to a number of matters but including decriminalisation with the acting police commissioner only a few weeks ago, and I am very certain that it is also a commitment that he shares as to how we can ensure that police resources are not being inappropriately applied in a way that unnecessarily provides police contact for children who really are vulnerable children – as I said, these are non-custodial settings – who are living in our homes.