Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (21:26): (2263) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Youth Justice. 1100 young offenders are now responsible for three out of five home invasions. This small group that is known to police cycles through Victoria’s broken bail system again and again, and everyday Victorians are paying the price for Labor’s failure here.

Home invasions are amongst the most traumatic experiences that anyone can suffer. Innocent people are left feeling terrified in their own homes, and these repeat offenders are left to continue the cycle on new victims. At the same time young offenders are being failed by a broken youth justice system. More than two-thirds of the youth currently held in youth justice centres are awaiting trial. Labor’s long neglect of the courts has left them floundering, unable to dispense justice and using outdated paper-based processes.

When the courts fail to move cases through the system, the damage does not pause. These delays mean that all youth detainees, both innocent and guilty, are being held in the same so-called youth justice centres, which have the highest rates of physical assault in Australia. If anyone doubts the broken systems, the numbers settle that question. More than four out of five offenders who spend at least one day of their sentence in a youth justice centre will reoffend within 12 months – that is four out of five of them. This is why our magistrates refuse to place youth offenders in these centres. As for the damage, Victorians are paying more than ever. Despite fewer young people being in detention or under supervision than a decade ago, the government spends almost three times as much per person than New South Wales, and our outcomes are catastrophically worse.

Labor has abandoned crime prevention, despite youth crime. Labor has provided only two youth crime prevention program grants in the last two years. Meanwhile it has cut funding to 34 African community affiliated prevention programs that these communities are crying out for. There is a better way. The Liberals and Nationals will deliver a $100 million safer communities plan, with our Restart and Youth Start programs allowing these young children to have an off-ramp and to turn their lives around. A system that fails to stop repeat offenders fails victims, and a system that warehouses children without rehabilitation fails young people. The Labor government is failing on both counts. The action I seek is for the minister to explain why repeat offending remains so high among known cohorts and why prevention funding has been cut during a crisis.