‘Shame on the premier’: Plan for children to face life sentences draws wave of condemnation

Proposed laws that would allow children as young as 14 to be sentenced as adults have drawn a wave of condemnation from human rights and legal experts, while the opposition insists the plan is not tough enough.

Premier Jacinta Allan revealed that complex legislation required to change the way violent youth offenders are dealt with by the justice system was still being drafted, with a bill to be introduced to parliament by the end of this year.

“I want adult time for violent crime to commence as soon as possible,” she said. “We must send a very clear message, and indeed deliver the serious consequences that need to come as a result from people who commit these violent crimes.”

But the plan was immediately denounced by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC), Youthlaw, and the Les Twentyman Foundation, 54 reasons (which implements Save the Children services in Australia), and the Greens as a shameful and punitive overreach.

The proposed laws, announced on Wednesday, would move children charged with serious offences – such as aggravated home invasion, carjacking, and intentionally or recklessly causing injury in circumstances of gross violence – to adult courts, allowing them to face much longer sentences.

Currently, the Children’s Court maximum is three years for any single offence, while adult courts can impose 20 to 25 years for similar crimes.

The proposal also aims to increase the maximum penalty for aggravated home invasion and carjacking from 25 years to life imprisonment.

Shadow attorney-general James Newbury labelled the plan hollow, saying the government should properly imitate Queensland’s LNP government by uplifting 33 offences rather than just eight.

“The government appears to be proposing a law that rips the guts out of what was implemented in Queensland,” he said.

Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the government was moving in the right direction, but warned that the government must not compromise the effectiveness of the reforms to validate “minority views” that the changes are too strong.

“There will be plenty of stakeholders lining up to tell the government that they’ve got it wrong,” Gatt said.

The United Nations earlier this year accused Queensland’s “Adult Crime, Adult Time” laws of breaching international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

During a lengthy press conference on Wednesday morning, Allan repeated her new “adult time for violent crime” slogan 10 times. She began by reading a letter from the victim of a crime whose husband and son were seriously injured by a 16-year-old attempting to steal a car.

When asked whether she was confident that judges would deliver harsher sentences under the proposed laws, Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny cited statistics showing that jail terms and longer sentences were more likely when matters were dealt with by adult courts.

They repeatedly claimed that the crimes were a “new type of offending” not seen before.

Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan said children sentenced under the new regime would serve their time in youth justice facilities and in some instances “age into” the adult prison system. He said young offenders showing promising signs of rehabilitation could be kept in the youth justice system until the age of 24.

Where the Children’s Court is primarily concerned with rehabilitating offenders, adult courts balance this against the need to deter and punish criminals and protect the community.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin said it was offensive the government would write a press release and print a corflute when the bill had not even been drafted.

“This highlights the absolute shit the government feeds the community,” he said.

VALS, HRLC and Liberty Victoria all accused the government of breaching the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights.

“Today as we are signing Victoria’s first Treaty, at the same time the premier wants to sign kids’ lives away who make a mistake,” VALS chief executive Nerita Waight said.

She also said that the proposed changes would disproportionately affect Aboriginal children.

“Shame on this government, shame on the premier and shame on this cabinet for allowing your leader to push this agenda on our kids.

“Victoria is a cruel and unforgiving state … it is only a matter of time until we are mourning the loss of a child at the hands of the state.”

HRLC associate legal director Monique Hurley called on the government to urgently invest in support services over political point-scoring.

“In an alarming race to the bottom, the Allan government is copying the Crisafulli government’s harmful youth justice laws in Queensland,” Hurley said.

Liberty Victoria said it represented an appalling erosion of children’s rights.

“The slogan ‘adult time for violent crime’ reduces complex social and developmental issues to a soundbite and abandons long-standing legal principles that recognise children’s need and capacity for change and rehabilitation.”

Victoria Legal Aid criminal law executive director Kate Bundrock said it would disconnect young people from education, family, culture and community.

“And the more time a young person spends in jail, the more likely they are to return.”

Many of the children they see have experienced serious trauma, mental health issues or cognitive impairment.

The Federation of Community Legal Centres, Youthlaw, 54 reasons (which delivers Save the Children services in Australia) and the Youth Affairs Council Victoria all also condemned the announcement.

The Victorian Greens’ justice spokesperson, Katherine Copsey, said it was an “astonishing capitulation from Jacinta Allan”.

The Allan government has been dogged by a wave of violent youth crime, including the stabbing attacks that killed 12-year-old Chol Achiek and 15-year-old Dau Akueng, and heavily criticised by Battin, who has repeatedly accused Labor of being weak on crime.

This week’s announcement follows the Allan government’s tightening of bail laws to make it easier for children to be remanded and banning the sale and possession of machetes.

Allan last year abandoned an earlier commitment by her predecessor Daniel Andrews to increase the age of criminal responsibility.

Get alerts on breaking news as it happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.