Tuesday, 2 December 2025

 Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:50): I rise to update the house on the next steps our government is doing to keep the community safe. Recently I joined the Premier and the Attorney-General to announce Victoria’s new violence reduction unit, an Australian first backed by $19.8 million alongside $7.7 million for lived experience mentoring. The evidence is clear: an effective way to interrupt violent behaviour is to connect the young person with someone who genuinely understands the pressures they are facing because they have lived through it themselves. Scotland and London have proven this with major reductions in youth offending through lived experience mentoring. Their violence reduction units invested in credible, trained mentors who had turned their lives around, and violence has dropped dramatically. Our lived experience mentors, including those from 16 Yards and the Centre for Multicultural Youth, are trained and supervised. Many were once young offenders or young people on the edge. They use their own journey to cut through in a way that is tailored, because young people listen to people they trust and recognise.

This is targeted, practical crime prevention that keeps the community safe. When a young person forms a stable connection with someone who has walked the same path, we see real change. They stay in education, reconnect with family and start to believe their future can look very different. For the first time Victoria will embed this approach into our justice system. The violence reduction unit will coordinate interventions across government, use police intelligence to identify young people at risk earlier and work with schools and community services to intervene before violence escalates. This is the next step in our serious consequences, early interventions plan. Every time a mentor helps a young person step away from violence, that is one less victim and our community is safer.

Jaclyn Symes: On a point of order, President, I just want to perhaps give Mr McCracken an opportunity to correct the record, because he has either inadvertently or deliberately misled the house. On reflection of my diary, Mr McCracken referred to 21 November in his question, and that is the meeting that I attended.

The PRESIDENT: I do not have to rule on that. I do not think it is a point of order.