Victoria crime crackdown: Youth crime 'puppet masters' to face life sentences

Criminal “puppet masters” who recruit children into violent gangs could be jailed for life, as a state government ramps up its fight against youth offending.

Maximum penalties for those who recruit a child to engage in a violent offence would increase from 10 years to 15 years across the board, under the Victorian Labor announcement.

Adults who recruit children into more serious offences, including aggravated home invasions or carjackings, face life in prison under a new aggravated offence.

“If you turn a child to a life of violence, you should spend your life in jail,” Premier Jacinta Allan said.

“This is not about an excuse for violent children ... This is about targeting the evil adult puppet-masters pulling the strings.”

The Government cited a trend where organised crime is increasingly recruiting children to do their dirty work.

Traditional “mafia-style” gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and even transnational actors are using novel technology to recruit children into “Airtasker-style” violent offending schemes, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

It comes a day after her Government faced a wave of criticism from lawyers, human rights leaders and Aboriginal advocates for its “adult time for violent crime” laws, similar to the Queensland Liberal-National Government’s approach.

Children guilty of violent crimes could face life sentences for aggravated home invasion and carjacking, under proposed legislation to be introduced to parliament before the end of 2025.

Kids aged 14 and over charged with a raft of serious crimes would also no longer face a children’s court and instead have their cases heard in the County Court.

Former NSW children’s court magistrate David Heilpern said there was no evidence locking young people up longer made the community safer.

“The Government is responding to pressure, and it’s responding in a way that has no evidential base,” Professor Heilpern told AAP.

The Southern Cross University law dean likened the proposed changes to placing a Band-Aid on a gaping wound and criticised tough on crime policies in Queensland and the Northern Territory, boosting the number of children in jail.

“Every time discretion is removed from the courts in terms of sentencing, injustice occurs,” he said.

The best way to prevent children reoffending was rehabilitation rather than locking them up with antisocial peers, Criminal Bar Association of Victoria spokesman Christopher Carr said.

“The notion that children involved in gang activity will not commit crimes because they’ll think about the potential consequences ... is just not consistent with what we know about the way that children think,” he said.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said the move was not about safety but rather the looming state election.

She called on Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy to follow through on a threat to impose federal funding penalties on states and territories failing to meet Closing the Gap targets.

Ms Allan and three of her ministers stood in front of freshly printed signs spruiking the policy on Wednesday despite the legislation still being drafted.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin said it showed she was more worried about fixing headlines and polling than protecting the Victorian community.

The police union welcomed the Government’s ideological shift, while Victims of Crime Commissioner Elizabeth Langdon said the reforms must reinforce victims’ rights and entitlements.

Labor will seek a historic fourth consecutive term in power when Victorians head to the polls in November 2026.