Southbank community safety update

We’ve responded to an increase in violent offending by introducing Australia’s toughest bail laws and bringing in tougher sentences, so there are more serious consequences for violent crimes.

Adult Time for Violent Crime laws mean children charged with serious violent offences will face adult courts, where the chance of jail is greater, and sentences tend to be longer.

We’ve banned machetes, removing thousands of dangerous weapons from the streets so far.

Crime has dropped across Victoria thanks to Labor’s tough laws. The drop in alleged youth offending is the biggest since before the COVID pandemic. There’s still a big job ahead to drive down overall crime, but our laws reflect what Victorians expect, and they are reducing crime in our communities.

The data shows:

• Aggravated burglary down 22 per cent
• Aggravated and non-aggravated robbery down 15 per cent
• Crime committed by young men continuing to decline with a drop of nearly nine per cent
• Theft from a motor vehicle down four per cent
• Sexual offences and family violence incidents continuing to decline
• The victimisation rate, overall recorded offences and criminal incidents all decreasing

More adults are also being held to account for breaching their bail conditions following our tougher changes:

• For the first time since records, bail revocations and refusals in the Magistrates Court now make up a greater share of bail decisions – meaning more people are being jailed than are being bailed
• Bail revocations are up nearly 50 per cent and bail refusals are up by more than 63 per cent
  

Despite these continuing positive signs, crime is still unacceptably high and there’s more work to do.

• That’s why we brought in Adult Time for Violent Crime, increasing the likelihood of jail
• That’s why we started the Violence Reduction Unit to intervene early and stop crime before it starts
• That’s why we back the Chief Commissioner’s plan to get more police on the streets
• That’s why we’re keeping Victorians safe at work with PSOs in shopping centres and tougher ram-raid laws

Violence Reduction Unit

While serious consequences for violent crimes are critical, the best approach is to stop crime before it starts. That’s why the Victorian Government set up the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), to intervene early with kids at risk of committing crime.

The VRU model is based on Scotland’s successful approach to violence prevention which helped cut violent crime by 60 per cent.

Labor has now given the VRU a permanent home in our justice system backed with $33million in this year’s Budget.

Funding will go directly towards new programs that identify and disrupt youth crime patterns early.

Our Early Intervention Officers have already been selected to help 23 schools across Victoria support our teachers, principals, and wellbeing teams to keep kids engaged in positive activities and prevent them from heading down the wrong path. •