A week ago in the evening, the readA wait. It was getting ready for a momentous occasion.
Because the following day in the afternoon, I would be signing as an Assembly member Victoria, in fact Australia's first treaty.
The reader was a Yorda order and marrying jurywoman. She's a member of the First People's Assembly of Victoria and Treaty co Convena. She's also the CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. That night, as she prepared for the day ahead, her phone rang. It was Victoria's Attorney General ringing to let her know that the government was set to announce new laws that would allow children as young as fourteen to be tried in adult courts and face life sentences.
So it is a very unique circumstances which should be advised that Victoria is going to proceed to lock up children, some for life. When you are looking forward to something that was supposed to be transformative, that was supposed to feel that Victoria was ushering in a new era, and then to be somewhat slap in the face by rather regressive action, it leaves you reeling. Daniel.
The proposal was rushed in the Cabinet with little warning. Ministers were given just minutes to read it before the meeting began. Only a year ago, Labor promised to raise the age of criminal responsibility. Now in response to tablot Ourt cry, it's taking a sharp turn, following Queensland and adopting adult time for adult crime. If it goes ahead, it means more First Nations children would be locked up in Victoria than ever before.
Their lives are on the line. These are children that won't receive any hope of a future. They're going to spend the remainder of their childhood, Daniel, in a prison cell. They're going to spend their early adulthood in a prison cell. And as we know, the more you entrenched child in the criminal legal system, the more often they are likely to be caught up in a cycle of offending.
I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM today Nriita wait on how the premier's new laws could devastate vulnerable kids and what it says about the kind of state Victoria is becoming in a time of treaty. This Tuesday, November eight e Naurita, thank you so much for joining us. Can you describe exactly what these new youth justice reforms will allow and why you and the Victorian Aguinal Legal Service see them as such a dangerous change.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to note that these so called reforms were done without consultation with anyone in the sector. This appears to have been dreamed up by a cabinets of working group comprising of the Premier, the Attorney General, the Corrections Minister and the Minister for Police.
I today want to acknowledge, as Premiere that everyone of these violent youth crimes has a victim, a family that has had their life disrupted, a person that was shaken, a person who was hurt, and we are all horrified by these violent, brazen youth crimes and the devastating impact they have on its victims.
What they've decided to do is that children aged fourteen to seventeen years old found guilty of committing aggreda burglary, of aggreta carjacking could be sent to a life in prison that is literally equivalent to murder.
There are too many victims and not enough consequences. It's why Victoria will introduce adult time for violent crime, where the courts will treat children for these crimes like adults, where jail will be more likely and sentences will be longer.
The government also planned to send children who allegedly commit a fe including aggravated and an aggravated home invasion and carjacking, to the county court rather than the Children's court, who are the specialist when it comes to dealing with children.
Currently in the children's court, thirty four percent of children and young people sentenced for aggravated home invasion or aggravated carjacking. For those offenses, thirty four percent go to jail. When those offenses are before the county court, the adult court, ninety seven percent go to jail.
And this means that children are going to have a
very alienating experience within the court. They're going to be seen by a judge who has no idea how to interact with children, no idea about the complexities in which these children are often suffering under other traumas, the neglect often by the state in fact, but also often the fact that these children are very very young, Daniel, these are not people who are equivalent to an ad don't making a decision, they have very low executive function, and
it's just absolutely horrific that we have decided that deprivation of property is equal to costing someone their life.
So what do these laws mean for the children you represent three, your legal service, and for the absoinal community more broadly?
Yeah, I mean look, after hearing that news Tuesday night, I went back and looked at our Blittano lou clients and blatnall lose our specific option of children's legal service, and these reforms Daniel will affect two thirds of our clients two thirds. This for us is really difficult to swallow because when we see these kids, we know that they are young people with disability. They're young people who have been coursively forced to engage in risk taking and
offending behaviors. Young people who are and whose families are entrenched in poverty, young people who have often been removed from their families care before. Therefore, and those who have been found at the state at every step in their lives, they don't have an anchor Daniel. Often enough, they be
moved from place to place. There's no consistency in their education, no consistency in their supports, there is no stability for them, and that's how they get caught up in these behaviors and sometimes you know, Daniel's not people who are actively participating in the crime. Sometimes they're just being coerced to be a lookout. But they will still be charged if they had done the carjacking themselves or the home invasion.
Right now, when this is in Victoria's history, the first time that we've had such high imprisonment rates of Abiginal people, we are only going to increase that trend. We're not doing anything to detract from it. There is no investment in early prevention diversion, there is no investment in alternative responses. All Victoria knows how to do is be cruel and unforgiving and put people in jail.
Cell coming up how to stop violent crime without locking up more kids, the government says this is about community safety and making sure that there are serious consequences for serious crimes. And it's coming in response to the fact that in Victoria, youth crime is sparking. Crime is committed by children are up by almost eighteen percent, and children are overrepresented in serious and violent crimes like robbery and
aggravated burglaries and car theft. So what would a good response to arise in youth crime look like.
And good response to youth crime is one that is holistic, that takes a right space approach rather than a punity of one. So that's prioritizing prevention, welfare, addressing the root causes of offending. It means making sure that children have easy access to neurosycs, to social resu wellbeing care, to healthcare.
They have access to education, they have access to activities and an ability to create healthy relationships because these are also children Daniel who spent many years cycling through COVID lockdowns and as part of their formative development didn't really develop those healthy relationships or cohesive social networks. And in terms of acknowledging that there is a problem, of course there is Daniel, and this has happened in other countries. You can see what happened in Scotland many years ago.
They were having similar problems and what they did instead was treated as a public health issue, an input into early prevention and diversion, input into holistic and integrated therapeutic support because they understood wrapping around a child rather than putting in a sulm throwing where the key was the answer.
You've played an integral role in negotiating Australia's first treaty. I know it for a fact. What does this announcement say to you about the government's preparedness to work seriously with Aboriginal communities to address three causes of crime?
Look for me, it was incredibly difficult to sign that treaty Wednesday night because the state had an opportunity here Daniel, to act in good faith with the treaty. At an earlier point, they could have decided to engage with the sector, to engage with Aboriginal voices and experts, to implement long term solutions to make sure that we will all be safe. Instead, they chose to contradict early on the principles of the
treaty and take their own unforgiving and disastrous path. What I will say is that I would hope that the next First People's Assembly, which they'll take their positions on the first of May twenty twenty six, will util all of the powers and functions of all three arms of the Going Wall to not only ensure that they are taking our concerns and our kiosks to government, but that we are holding them accountable for their poor decision making.
Given that can the Aboriginal community have any faith in the government's commitment to treaty when it does something like this.
At the same time, can I say that I think there's a difference between Aboriginal community having faith in their own representatives utilizing the treaty to advocate and create transformational change, as compared to them having faith that the Victorian government will at all times out in accordance with the treaty. If we believe that to be true in any instance, then we wouldn't have created Ningma Nunya Wara as the
accountability mechanism. We wouldn't make sure that we had the ability to represent in Cabinet, to engage with Parliament, to press weighed them, to engage in the juty, to consult to create these good outcomes.
And finally, Narita, what do you want Victorians to understand about the kind of state we're becoming if these reforms go ahead?
Yeah, I think to understand the state we're becoming, it's good to take you to a specific example, and the one that comes to mind for me is Lily. So. Lily was charged with aggravated burglary and aggravated home invasion. They were charged with these violent offenses despite only playing a secondary role, so basically being a lookout Daniel. She was particularly vulnerable, as many young children of contact with the youth just system are for things like we mentioned earlier, disability,
mental health care protection. Our lawyers were able to strongly advocate for her and to keep her out of youth's detention and the charges were reduced. She then received a sentence which didn't include spending the rest of her life in prison, and baalistic legal and social supports were put in place by Blitna Lou which meant that she was diverted from the criminal legal system and Lily hasn't had
any further contact with the legal system. If Lily was charged under these proposed new laws, her matter will be heard in the county court, not the children's court, not with the experts. She would then have been exposed to an adult jurisdiction which lacks understanding and protective factors for children, and also its sentencing is motivated by punishment not rehabilitation like this within the children's court, and she would have undoubtedly been subjected to further harms which come from the
imprisonment of children. That instance should show you that we are on the path to not only being cruel and unforgiving, but to ensuring that it is our children who pay for the state's mistakes.
Narita, thank you so much for speaking of this.
Not a problem, Daniel.
Also in the news, Donald Trump says Republicans should vote to have the Epstein files released to the public, a major reversal of position for the US president. Members of Congress are set to vote this week and where the files related to the convicted sex offender should be published.
The President had spent months trying to convince his colleagues not to vote for their release, but as more Republicans look set the break with his order, Trump reverse course, saying it's time to move on from this Democrat hoax and Susan Leezy will not lose focus on her role for one minute, as Poland showed her ratings preferred Prime Minister at just ten percent, compared with Anthony Benezi, who
was at forty percent. In the wake of scrapping that zero, the Liberal Party has received its worst polling since federation, with One Nation experiencing a surge to a record high of eighteen percent. We'll have a foot report on the rise of One Nation and what it means for the country tomorrow. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.