Children as young as 14 who commit \u201cserious crimes\u201d will be sentenced as adults under a Victorian government plan to combat youth crime that has sparked fierce rebuke from human rights and Indigenous advocacy groups.<\/p>\n
The state government said on Wednesday that it would adopt \u201cadult time for violent crime\u201d laws similar to those in Queensland<\/a>, which implemented the tough approach in 2024.<\/p>\n Children of 14 could be tried in adult courts and possibly face life sentences under the proposed changes, to be announced by the premier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re introducing Adult Time for Violent Crime,\u201d Jacinta Allan<\/a> announced in a social media post.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n A former chair of the Law Institute of Victoria\u2019s criminal law section, Mel Walker, described the proposal as \u201cextraordinary, bad policy and counterintuitive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a community, are we content to deal with children in that way, and in how many years in the future, when they\u2019re affected in such a profound way by going into adult custody, are we prepared for those consequences?\u201d Walker told ABC radio Melbourne.<\/p>\n Walker said a high percentage of children coming before the courts had been exposed to family violence or had violence perpetrated upon them, or were being managed by child protection services with little or no family support.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of a want of belonging by a lot of these children, which motivates their involvement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they don\u2019t have the capacity \u2026 for this consequential thinking, because obviously and legitimately, their brains are just simply underdeveloped.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s opposition leader, Brad Battin, said the premier had no credibility and that Victorians can\u2019t trust her to deliver what she promises.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s announcement is the premier chasing another headline with no plan to follow through and deliver,\u201d Battin said.<\/p>\n Victoria has been in the grip of surging crime rates, with criminal offences spiking by 15.7% in the year to mid-2025, fuelled by thefts, home invasions and repeat youth offenders.<\/p>\n About 1,100 youths aged between 10 and 17 were arrested a combined 7,000 times, according to the latest crime statistics, as Victoria police declared children were quickly turning to extreme violence.<\/p>\n Queensland implemented its tougher \u201cadult crime, adult time\u201d laws in response to a 17-year-old teenager fatally stabbing Emma Lovell in a home invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n That legislation allows for youth offenders to face a mandatory life sentence for serious offences such as murder, with a minimum of 20 years before parole.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Monique Hurley, an associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said \u201creckless laws\u201d did not work or make communities safe and called on the government to scrap the proposed plan.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren deserve care, not cages and adult prison sentences,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Allan Government\u2019s proposed laws will condemn children as young as 14 to irreversible harm and an incredibly bleak future behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn an alarming race to the bottom, the Allan Government is copying the Crisafulli Government\u2019s harmful youth justice laws in Queensland \u2013 laws so extreme that they required Queensland\u2019s own human rights protections to be overridden.\u201d<\/p>\n Nerita Waight, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said the state was signing the state\u2019s first treaty at the same time the \u201cpremier wants to sign kids\u2019 lives away who made a mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShame on this government, shame on the premier and shame on this cabinet for allowing your leader to push this agenda on our kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cVictoria is a cruel and unforgiving state where children cannot make a mistake. Punishing trauma is not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n The Victorian announcement follows the state government backing down on plans to ban face coverings at protests.<\/p>\n