Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:17): I rise to update the house that once again Victoria has the lowest proportion of women in custody of any state – a remarkable effort. This has not happened by accident. It is the result of the hard work and determination of many of our partners and organisations, like Women and Mentoring. That is why I was pleased to attend the launch of their most recent evaluation report last week.

Since 2009 the program has been matching volunteer mentors with women and girls leaving prison or at risk of being involved with the criminal justice system. Each mentor provides participants with judgement-free social connection that fills a gap not addressed by traditional social work and clinical interventions, and it works. Independent evaluation shows that women involved in the program have a reoffending rate of less than 6 per cent, much lower than the state average. Let us not forget behind each statistic is a human story. That might be a woman struggling with addiction, a survivor of family violence or sexual trauma, or someone who is at risk of being entrenched in the criminal justice system. Behind each woman is also a volunteer, someone who has given up their time, expertise and wisdom to connect with a stranger.

And it does not stop there. Our support for lived experience mentoring initiatives spreads far and wide across the criminal justice system. This includes the important work of 16 Yards and the Centre for Multicultural Youth, amongst many others. I want to commend all the staff and volunteers at Women and Mentoring for the work they do day in, day out, behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.