I, too, rise to speak and make a contribution on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Community Safety) Bill 2025. I am really pleased that the Leader of the Nationals has sat down. I am going to begin my contribution, and I will explain why as I go through this contribution and talk about a couple of things and make a couple of observations. The first is that it is impossible here in this place for those opposite to have a serious conversation about crime in this state. That has been entirely obvious, not just over the last three years, but over the last 11 years. Those opposite cannot be trusted to have a sensible, mature, serious conversation about crime here in Victoria. This is really the first thing I want to start with, and I do hope that colleagues and those opposite hear me when I say this: locking up and impinging on someone’s liberty out in the community, locking up a child, is incredibly serious. It is incredibly serious. It is not something that should be undertaken with sudden urge. It is not something that should be undertaken recklessly. It is not something that should be undertaken without serious consultation with the organisations and the people who serve at the front line of this, and I am talking about Victoria Police, those in the legal fraternity and those in the prevention space.

It is incredibly serious to lock up a child. It is no laughing matter. On the contributions of those opposite playing political hot potato, I would caution them against speaking like that about this issue and about this bill. The second thing I wish to mention is that whilst it is incredibly serious to lock up a child, it is also incredibly serious – and should not be joked about and should not be used for political pointscoring, which I have seen time and time again – to talk about these matters when people have died. People have had terrible things done to them; they have been maimed by knives and machetes and had terrible offences and nightmares cast upon them, not only by adults here in this state, but by young people and children. It is incredibly serious.

This bill has not come before this place without it and its implications having being seriously considered – yes, for offenders and for the children we are talking about, but also for the victims. Let us remember that some of those victims are children themselves, okay? We are also talking about victim-survivors who are children. What this bill does is make good on this government’s recent commitment to introduce adult time for violent crimes. This bill is something that has been welcomed in my community. It is the bill that is going to provide, determine and undertake consequences put upon those serious young offenders in our community – yes, in the western suburbs.

I do not want anyone to doubt that community safety is one of the top priorities of this government. It needs to be a top priority of this government, of any government; it must be. Community safety must be paramount. What the changes in this bill have done is provide a whole number of changes that our government has made to tackle what really is a scourge of violent youth crime. It is appalling seeing these crimes committed. It is appalling reading about them, and let us face it, it is appalling watching the footage of these crimes when we wake up and either read the newspaper in the morning or watch the news of an evening.

Now, earlier this year went ahead and introduced some of the toughest bail laws in this country, and we targeted offences like home invasion, carjacking and aggravated burglary. We introduced a new test to apply to repeat offenders who commit these crimes, yes, whilst on bail, ensuring that they are less likely to be granted bail in the first place. But what we have seen so far is that, yes, these laws are having an impact now. I know those opposite like to talk about them not having an impact. When I am out in the community, I remind my community we know they are having an impact because the number of people who have been remanded, both youth and adult offenders, has increased substantially since this time last year. But what we know as a government is that there is still more to do and we need to take more action. That is what this bill is about. A lot has been said about these changes that we have announced over the past couple of weeks, including this one, the adult time for violent crimes.

Some have said that we are going too far. I have talked to people in the community, and they can tell me about crimes that have been committed against them by youth, or they know friends or family, or they saw it on their community pages, and they are really unsettled. Some of them are really appalled or frightened, but some of those people have said, ‘Yes, it’s going too far,’ that we are setting these kids up for a life of misery and a cycle that will see them back in jail time and time again. Others have said that we have not gone far enough, but what I know is that these changes will make communities like mine in Melbourne’s west not only feel a whole lot safer, but they will be a whole lot safer. We have seen all of these kinds of offences occur – aggravated burglaries, carjackings, home invasions – and when I talk to folks out on the streets, and I talk to a lot of people, and I am always more than happy to talk about crime, what they tell me is that crime is one of their biggest concerns. It is. And unfortunately the number one sentiment they feel is that there are not enough, if any – and we talk directly about this – consequences, that young people especially need consequences for their actions. That is exactly what this bill is about. This is going to deliver very serious consequences for very serious violent crimes.

I think folks on both sides of the house know there is a litany of reasons why children are committing these crimes. I do want to say in Wyndham the two main reasons why we are seeing young people commit crimes is firstly social media and the normalisation of knives and machetes and gangs, the normalisation of violence, and these are real. This is something that is really difficult to tackle. We have brought in a ban on social media, but we are seeing children as young as 10 and 12 commit some of these horrible, horrible offences. Tackling social media for this generation is really difficult. There is no silver bullet and no easy solutions. It will not be fixed tomorrow, and I think folks on the streets know that.

The second thing in Wyndham that I think those opposite certainly have failed to talk about for the last 11 years here in this place while we on this side have gotten on – we have spent billions; we even had a royal commission into it – is domestic violence. It is a huge scourge on our community. The ripple effect is absolutely abhorrent. But what we do know is that some of the most violent youth offenders themselves have come from homes with the horror of domestic and family violence, whether they are watching dad beat mum or they have been beaten up themselves.

The other thing I will say about Wyndham is that Wyndham in the next couple of years will have the highest population of young people. Yes, it is one of the fastest growing LGAs, not just here in Victoria but in the country. It will have the highest population of young people, and that is something that governments like ours must take seriously. Kids will need consequences for their actions. The more serious consequences will be rolled out for the serious violent crimes for these kids. But what we also know and we talk a lot about and have talked a lot about and have invested a lot and we will continue to do even more because we must do more, is look at investing in prevention strategies. What else we can do? What else is working across the globe in turning young people who are going to fall into a life of crime away and giving them a life where they can be a productive, wonderful citizen in the community?

I think what this side of the house and this government has done is walk a tightrope where they have had to have a balancing act – adult time for violent, serious crime – and then we have put in prevention measures like the early intervention measure that we announced a couple of weeks ago. We were actually at Sunshine College to announce that, and Sunshine College knows very well what happens to young people who are not steered away from the justice system and are not given opportunity. But this is a really serious bill, and I would urge members to talk about it in a much more respectful, serious way.