Victorian government set to introduce new youth justice bill

Well, this new Youth Justice Bill will feature a range of measures. This includes raising the age of criminal responsibility from 11:50. Now Victoria will be Australia's first state to do this as the government says it's really keen to see younger children stay out of the criminal justice system. Although children aged 10:00 and 11:00 will still be able to be collected by police and taken to a safe space until able to take care of them if they're deemed to be a risk to themselves or to others. Now, ankle bracelets or electronic monitoring will also be rolled out as part of this bill. This will see 50 youth offenders trialled with electronic bracelets over two years in a bid to curb and crack down on bail breaches. They'll also be an increased focus on warnings and cautions, with trials in NSW showing that a focus on this and this early intervention is proving effective in deterring young people from reoffending and having to go to court. They'll also be a focus and a crackdown on older people and closing loopholes, which essentially allows them to recruit young people to do their dirty work for them. And there will also be a victim register roll out now. This will allow people who have victims of youth crime to receive more relevant updates and also have their say about how it's impacted them, which will inform parole conditions. Here's a little bit of what Premier Jacinta Allen had to say about this bill. This is about delivering a youth justice system that keeps Victorians safe. And yes, that does mean holding young offenders to account while also seeing those who are less likely to continue to re offend. Keeping those kids out of the criminal justice system, stopping them from becoming hardened adult offenders, is going to be a key feature of this bill. Now this bill has been rolled out following a spate in crime across Victoria involving young people, and the government says it hopes that these measures will go a long way to helping address some of those problems.