Bill Debate: Crimes Amendment (Recruitment of Children for Criminal Activity) Bill 2026

BILL DEBATE:

‘CRIMES AMENDMENT (RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY) BILL 2026’.

Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (15:48):

I rise to speak on the Crimes Amendment (Recruitment of Children for Criminal Activity) Bill 2026.

Crime has consequences, and not dealing with crime has a profound, longstanding and tragic impact on our community. We have seen that in recent days. It is important, as we debate this Bill – a Bill that seeks to address crime – from the commencement of this debate to acknowledge Van Viet Truong and the tragic loss of a member of the Sunshine community who was taken from the community far too young and in a way that I think has touched the heart of every Victorian. He was a local trader of 30 years, and you could see the outpouring of grief from the community.

I say again these are the consequences of crime left unchecked. These are the consequences of not being tough when it comes to offenders being left out on the street, who will at times through repeat crime cause the most tragic consequences for community and for victims.

We have talked in this Chamber for many years about the surging crime in our community and the weakness of our laws. As these debates occurred, the Government initially denied crime was occurring. They literally denied that there was a crime problem. They used words like crime and increases in crime were not real and not occurring and that there was no crime crisis. In fact, the former Premier Daniel Andrews literally chastised someone in my community for calling out the increase in crime. He chastised her, belittled her and said that she did not understand crime data. We have seen with every certainty a surge in crime to the point where there is no other way to describe it than as a crime crisis. It is a crime crisis that has seen a softening of our laws and a softening of bail, which has meant that specifically youth offenders are on the street. On many occasions they are committing repeat offences and, once arrested through the good work of Victoria Police, are let out through the revolving bail door.

As a result, in the months before an election the Government is seeking to politically fix the issue of crime, not actually fix the issue of crime. The Crimes
Amendment (Recruitment of Children for Criminal Activity) Bill is one of those attempted political fixes. What this Bill does is create a new offence, punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment, where an adult recruiting a child to engage in criminal activity constitutes an offence punishable on first conviction by 15 years imprisonment or more. In short what this bill does is create a new recruitment-of-children offence that in the Government’s view acquits thePremier’s and the Attorney-General’s commitment of November last year to create this new aggravated offence.

What this Bill fails to do, like all legislative measures moved by this Government in relation to crime, is actually deal with the problem, because inherent in this
Government is a belief that certain offenders should not be punished, because of their age. I am not talking about offenders who are under the age of 18; I am talking about youth offenders primarily, in the Government’s mind, up to the age of 21. When you treat offenders as different classes of offenders, what you do is create a loophole through which offenders will repeat their crimes – we are seeing that without any question and now without any dispute – and also loopholes in how you manage those criminals. That is, unfortunately, what this Bill will do.

We will not oppose this Bill, but under Standing Orders I wish to advise the House of Amendments to the Bill and request that they be circulated. In doing so we are seeking to make one primary change to this Bill. This Bill creates a new offence for adults, in shorthand, and says, ‘If an adult recruits, they commit an offence.’ So, what will happen as a result of this Bill? An adult offender will recruit one child who will now do all of the recruiting. This Bill creates a new loophole which is encouraging an adult criminal to conduct a pyramid scheme. That is exactly
what will happen as a result of this Bill, and the Government was not able to explain why the offence was only targeted at adults. Recruitment is not and should not be an offence that only an adult commits. If a 17-year-old conducts a recruitment campaign of criminals, why should that 17-year-old be treated differently than if that recruiter is 19? How can it possibly be that the Government
would propose a scheme that says a 17-year-old recruiter should not receive the same punishment for the crime as a 19-year-old?

All this does is underline the problem with this Government in the way that it creates different classes of offending based on age, because in the Government’s mind what they believe is that young people deserve endless chances no matter what their crime, and you can see that. I mean, the last statistics that I looked at in terms of the Children’s Court – and I am going on memory here – show that outcomes in relation to crimes committed by children saw an average, in the last period, of detention of 3 per cent, so 97 per cent of offenders were not detained as a punishment for their crime. How are those odds? If you are a youth offender, you can bet your bottom dollar that it is very, very hard to be detained in Victoria. And what you now know, as a result of this new offence being put into the statute books, is if you are a recruiter of criminals, hire a young person to do the recruiting for you, because then you will be only guilty of one offence, one crime. You will be guilty for the one single recruiter that you recruit, and if that recruiter then recruits 50 children for you, you are guilty of nothing.

This Bill, through a giant loophole, enables a pyramid scheme. That is why the Coalition will move, and has moved in this Chamber, Amendments that take out the word ‘adult’ and, in simple terms, say, ‘If you recruit, as a person, you are guilty of the offence.’ I think that that passes the commonsense test, and I am very sure Victorians would agree. In fact, I am very sure Victorians are sick of seeing the loopholes in relation to the crime that is occurring from the legislative reforms that the Government has sought to make over time, because every single
time the Government moves a Bill in this place, regularly, if not almost immediately, the opposition will stand up and say, ‘This Bill will not fix the problem that exists. This Bill will not solve the category and type of crime that is occurring.’

And I would say in relation to this Bill, the Crimes Amendment (Recruitment of Children for Criminal Activity) Bill will not close the loophole that is seeing what the government acknowledges is a problem in relation to recruitment of children who are committing crimes. In the Government’s own words, they have seen a need for this offence because the Government have identified that under existing legislation there is not enough power to address this issue. In the Bill briefing the Government gave they confirmed that between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024, over that period there were 29 charges for the existing offence before this bill and four individuals were convicted. Over this period there is no doubt and no question we have seen an explosion in crime, we have seen an explosion in gang-related activity, and we have seen an explosion in relation to the recruitment of children to commit crimes, and we have seen four individuals convicted.

This Bill, because of that loophole, has been drafted to discourage recruitment. But as I said earlier, what this Bill does in its drafting is aim at adults who recruit, and like with every other measure when it comes to bail, when it comes to violent behaviour and when it comes to recruitment, the Government creates legislation that creates categories of offenders based on their age, and it says that if you are not an adult, you do not deserve to be punished despite that crime. Well, our amendment seeks to address that, and it is an Amendment that we will move here
and we will move in the other place, because our view is that when a person recruits, that person should be guilty of the offence. If you are 17, for example, and you seek to recruit, these specific measures should be available in relation to the consequence you receive, and they are not under the drafting of this Bill. That is why we have sought to move that Amendment both here and in the other place. We cannot keep seeing not only a crime crisis but legislative drafting that protects certain offenders. By creating two classes of offending based on age, you are protecting certain offenders. Why the community is so angry about it is because you are not protecting an offender for a minor crime. In fact, what the community now sees and knows to be true – because it is true – is that the Government’s laws protect youth offenders on the basis of them being young and in many cases protect youth offenders who are committing dozens of crimes, the most serious
crimes. It is why the coalition has announced a very strong difference in the Government’s fake ‘adult crime, adult time’ legislation, and the Coalition has proposed strong laws which we will implement if we are elected straightaway.

When the Government announced their ‘adult crime, adult time’ legislation, they looked at Queensland, which has roughly 50 laws within the purview of that legislation – 50 serious offences – and they said they will bring down five in full and they will bring down three in part. So, of the eight offences that exist under the Government’s adult crime legislation, there are five crimes which are fully covered – five out of 50, 10 per cent – and three in part, so eight of 50. The Coalition has already committed to 25 falling under the adult crime legislation, because we believe that violent crime must stop and the only way to stop it is to stop having a two-tiered system that encourages young people to offend because there are no consequences.

I have spoken about this particular instance before. I recall a series of youth offenders conducting multiple carjackings in my community not that long ago and being arrested on a Saturday afternoon in my main street in front of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. As the two offenders were being arrested, they were laughing to each other, and one of them shouted out to the other, ‘See you in a couple of hours when I get bail.’ And guess what, 3 hours later they were on bail.

Unfortunately, what the legislation this Government has put forward does is it says that if you commit certain violent crimes, you get out of jail free because you are not an adult. Literally the Government is building get-out-of-jail-free cards into all of its legislation. It says that if you are young, you get out of jail. The Government will say it is not true, but the community knows it is true. That is a point we have also been making: every single time the Government has come into this house with a Bill, not only have we said it will not solve the problem, but we have said the community will work it out. And now not only do you see the Government seek to try and move legislation which is flawed but you see the new Premier somehow claim – robotically, of course – that he is going to do something about crime. ‘I am going to do something about crime,’ says the new Premier. ‘I’m going to do something about crime.’ No-one believes it to be true, because when you dig underneath the substance of what the robot says, there is nothing there.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Order! Member for Brighton, correct titles, please.

James NEWBURY: What title? I am talking about robots. Thank you, Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Order! There was a description before of someone else, and that was then carried through. I am just asking for correct titles.

James NEWBURY: So not descriptions, correct titles. Thank you for the clarification on your contribution. Anyway, whatever – we will leave that where it is. People are touchy. The new Premier will step up and say, ‘I’m going to do something about crime.’

A Member: Gonna.

James NEWBURY: ‘Gonna do something about crime.’ What? It is like the royal commission: ‘I’m going to do something about a Royal Commission.’ What? What are you going to do? The Premier has done nothing about crime – nothing. You could see that in Sunshine five of the local mayors drew attention to the police station closures and the lack of policing. Very fair points that have been made, frankly, by most Victorians – not Labor Members of Parliament, because they have been busy shutting them. Actually, there was one Member – I have forgotten the Member’s name – who let the cat out of the bag and did speak about the issue before they were probably hauled away.

The Government has proudly overseen the closure of police stations and the reduction in policing. But the community can see what has happened. As I said earlier, when measures have been moved in this place, we have said they will not work. We have also said that Victorians will see the failure by this Government on crime, and the community can now see the failure, because normal people are becoming victims to the worst type of offending, most of the time by repeat offenders – not all of the time, but most of the time some of the worst crimes are being committed by repeat offenders. Victorians are now looking on and seeing their new Premier standing up and saying, ‘I’m going to do something about crime.’ They know that he has not, and they know that he will not. We have eight more sitting days until an election, so they know this Government will not fix the crime crisis and they know the Coalition will.

At the end of the day Labor believes that if you are not an adult you should have the door open to you and you should be let out no matter what crime you have committed. There is no more offensive behaviour by this Government than that which has seen aggravated home invaders and carjackers commit the worst possible crimes and be let out again and again and again. There are examples of tens and dozens of offences being committed by certain offenders. When you look at the weak adult crime provisions, which cover only eight crimes, those
provisions do not cover some of the worst offending that is occurring in the community.

If you look at arson, as police have said publicly, they believe children are being recruited to commit arson attacks on Victorian businesses – recruitment of children. Why are children being recruited? Because they are let out, and every time they are caught, guess what happens? You can track it: before the end of the police officer’s shift the offender is bailed because the Government believes that as they are not adults the door should be open to them. ‘Why would you want to punish them? Why would you want a consequence?’ says Labor. Because they are violent offenders. What the Coalition will ensure happens, I can say, is that adult crime will include arson because we believe it is one.

We have already announced 25 crimes that should be considered adult crimes, because we do not believe in two categories of offending – that if you are not an adult you should be treated differently. We do not believe that, when a 17-year old commits a certain type of attack, that 17-year-old should be treated differently than a 19-year-old is. If you are old enough to go into someone’s house with a machete and hold it up to some poor Victorian’s neck, you should face the full consequence of the law, and that is what we will ensure. This Bill, although we will not oppose it, as I have said, does everything that this government does by way of law-and-order legislation: it creates loopholes. As I said earlier, this bill creates an offence for adults. What this bill, I fear, will do is this: if you think through what has occurred with the recruitment of children to commit arson, if an offender recruits one child and gets that child to commit to recruit on their behalf effectively, they are only guilty of one offence, not the pyramid scheme that is created which will see all of the other children go into the offending.

That is why the Coalition is seeking to amend the Bill: to ensure that loopholes do not exist. That does not mean that the law should not account for differences in age at all, but our view is when it comes to serious violent crime, especially serious repeat violent crime, there should not be a tolerance that allows the worst types of crimes to be forgiven because, for example, the offender is 17, not 18 or 19. We believe that if you are old enough to commit a serious violent crime, you should be dealt with in that way. I say finally that the Coalition will not be opposing the Bill, but we will be seeking to move those Amendments in both this place and the other place.