Hansard debates

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (11:27:34): Can I thank the member for Shepparton for her question. First and foremost I do want to say that any attack on frontline staff is completely unacceptable. I met with the staff at Malmsbury last week. I laid out our approach and our legacy of reforms to ensure that any attack on frontline staff is not only reported and investigated but immediately reported to Victoria Police. In addition to our reform of statutory minimum sentences as well as presumptions that any time served will be added should you be found guilty, we are committed to seeing every force of the law implemented in youth justice. I want to also thank the member for her interest in early childhood, because she is right—we know the first 1000 days of a child’s life, indeed the first five years of their life, is when their brain develops almost up to 90 per cent. From the Sentencing Advisory Council and from the Armytage-Ogloff expert review we know the life trajectory of a young person begins in that first 1000 days of life. That is why I also want to congratulate the Premier and the Deputy Premier for the rollout of three-year-old kinder. Not only is this an Australian first but it has the weight of international evidence behind it, because we know two years are better than one, and we know that that investment will build the foundational skills for young people to thrive in education. It shows that when you get to grade 4 you are so much further ahead if you have done two years rather than one. We know from the international evidence that when it comes to early education, investments in education are the foundational programs for people to live a life of purpose and a law-abiding life, but then also to go on and have a future-orientated life. I want to also thank the member for her interest in this very important area. She spoke about prison beds and youth justice beds. Yes, youth justice beds are one answer, prison beds are one answer, but we cannot always continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. That is why we are committed to using the expert review. That is why 20 different stakeholders, from the Ombudsman and the Sentencing Advisory Council to our youth justice workers, have come out and supported the government’s investment in keeping three precincts rather than just having the two. We know New South Wales has six youth justice precincts; we have two. If we can manage the cohort, for the very first time—and this is endorsed by the United Nations—we will disentangle girls and boys. In adult corrections we do not have girls and boys and women and men together, so we should not have them together in the youth justice system. So I am committed to turning the youth justice system around. I thank everyone for their support, in particular the stakeholders, and I commend the question from the member for Shepparton. It is good to have another question on youth justice—I think it is my third in almost a year—and she is almost equal with the opposition in her interest in this important, vital subject matter, so I thank her.