2025-11-12
The Victorian Greens have condemned the Jacinta Allan Labor Government’s decision to introduce life sentences for children, saying it once again proves the Labor is incapable of implementing policies that actually work to improve community safety.
Instead of listening to experts, Labor has chosen to copy the conservative Liberal Government in Queensland despite data showing no evidence that those policies produced a reduction in youth offending.
While multiple experts, including the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council and UNICEF have all done research that found that harsher and longer sentences are linked to higher rates of reoffending and worse long term outcomes for young people.
We can have safer communities but to do that we need a smarter approach and to invest in what works. That means tackling the root causes of crime and preventing violence well before it happens.
But Labor is doing the opposite, with funding in crime prevention being slashed in half in the past two years alone and critical mental health and youth services starved of funding.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for justice Katherine Copsey said that it’s alarming to see Labor copying policies from conservative interstate Liberal governments instead of investing in what actually works.
Quotes attributable to the Victorian Greens spokesperson for justice, Katherine Copsey:
“Jacinta Allan’s Labor Government would prefer to import failed policies from a conservative Liberal Government interstate than listen to what actually works.
“It’s more proof of just how hard it is to tell the Jacinta Allan’s Labor Government from the Liberals, as the two old parties keep taking the same failed approach only reacting and doing nothing to prevent crime in the first place.
“If Labor was serious about keeping communities safe, they’d invest in what actually works - prevention, housing and mental health, but these are all the things that Labor continues to cut. This isn’t fixing the problem, frankly it’s making it worse.
“Real safety starts with stable housing, access to healthcare and mental health support and it means acting now to prevent harm before it happens. We need a smarter approach that invests in the prevention and early interventions that are proven to work.”