VALS condemns the Justice Legislation Amendment (Community Safety) Bill 2025, which removes critical safeguards for children and reflects a deliberate disdain for the rights of children. The Allan Labor government’s blatant disregard for the rights of children will be remembered as a shameful, careless injustice on our kids today, and for future generations to come.
Imposing life sentences on children is abhorrent. Under Jacinta Allan’s leadership, kids who have not yet developed executive functioning, critical thinking and rational choice, and who are supposedly too young to access social media, will face adult life sentences of imprisonment. Through this Bill, this government is also actively erasing the principle that a child’s rehabilitation and positive development should be promoted, as this is the most effective evidence-based way to reduce reoffending. The Bill neglects core human rights protections that safeguard our children’s development, wellbeing and future potential.
We know that locking children up is actively harmful. Prisons traumatise and retraumatise our children, because that is what prisons do. They do not rehabilitate. They do not address the underlying causes of offending behaviour. All the young people VALS support have been failed by multiple systems well before they come into contact with the youth justice system. They have been failed by the child protection system, they have been failed by the health system, and they have been failed by the education system. The young people involved in the youth justice system have experienced complex trauma, including transgenerational trauma, poverty, harm and abuse, have themselves or their parental figures experiencing unaddressed mental health and AOD issues.
Treating child and adult offenders differently is a foundational component of modern criminal legal systems. This recognises that children and young people are vulnerable and require a higher degree of protection when in contact with the legal system. Everybody should be alarmed at this trending characteristic of youth justice policy across this nation right now.
The Bill marks a year of ill informed, reckless and hasty justice related reforms, with more investment into prisons than to models that address the social and economic issues that underly offending behaviours. You can’t punish the trauma out of a child.
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, the legal sector and experts knows that what helps break these cycles to support young people on a new path – it is education, mentoring, safe and stable housing, regular food and healing from trauma. For Aboriginal children, connection to their communities and culture is what keeps them strong and safe.
Over the past 2 years the Victorian government has cut funding from critical support services, including bail and parole support programs, youth programs, housing supports and mental health supports, and all whilst we’re in a cost-of-living crisis. Instead of listening to experts they are driving this state into more debt, and none of the issues they purport to care about will be addressed – only compounded.
VALS’ dedicated youth legal practice, Balit Ngulu provides a holistic, trauma informed approach and model. We work with the child and their family to address both their legal and non-legal needs. We know this approach works, it has been successfully evaluated three times, and yet we are still fighting for Balit Ngulu to be adequately funded so we can support all First Nations kids who need our support across Victoria.
If we actually want to reduce future harm and improve community safety for all Victorians, this Bill must not pass. This Bill shows that Jacinta Allan’s government has no hope for the future of children in Victoria. Shame on this government for turning their back on our kids. VALS will continue to walk alongside our kids to help them learn from their mistakes so they can thrive in our communities, with their families.
Our children deserve futures, not life sentences
Quotes Attributable to Nerita Waight, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service:
“Today represents a pivotal moment in Victoria’s history. If this Bill passes parliament this week we will see children’s rights, protected under international law, struck from the law in Victoria. Next week this government will be apologising to us as First Peoples. Premier, will you be counting backwards from today in your long list of things to apologise for? I will not accept your crocodile tears. We will not stop fighting for the rights of our children to be protected and upheld.”
“What is lost in the government narrative and media cycle is that so often the kids who are caught up in the youth justice system are victims themselves. They have experienced abuse and harm, they have been removed from their families and their culture. They have disengaged from education. So, by the time our kids have entered into the youth justice system, they have already been failed by multiple systems. Locking them up is not the answer.”
Quotes Attributable to Negar Panahi, Principal Managing Lawyer, Balit Ngulu of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service:
“Our young people deserve better. They deserve leaders who make informed policy decisions, not ram through dangerous laws that will see more young people locked up and lose their futures for mistakes. This is not about kids being held accountable for their actions, this is about locking away “the problem”. This is a national shame to give up on children who make mistakes. Every single young person in youth justice will one day be released, whether it’s a matter of days, weeks or years, so the government should be investing in self-determined, trauma informed, therapeutic intensive services and supports that work with the young people and their family so they can learn from their mistakes, heal and thrive. Prisons are a costly and ineffective measure to complex social issues.”
“I am proud of the work we do at Balit Ngulu because we work with the young person to change their life’s trajectory, to understand what they would like to achieve and support them to make the necessary steps to start their journey to thrive. We walk alongside them, and their families, because we believe in the capacity of young people to make good decisions with the right support. This government’s policy response is cruel, it’s inhumane and it’s a moral failure. The state has a duty of care, and they are failing dismally.”
Read VALS statement of advice here: Our kids deserve futures, not life sentences Statement of Advice on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Community Safety) Bill 2025
MEDIA RELEASE 2 December 2025