Victoria’s proposed laws that would allow children as young as 14 to be sentenced as adults has been condemned by human rights, Indigenous and legal experts, advocacy groups and experts.
On Wednesday, the Allan Labor government announced it would adopt “adult time for violent crime” laws, mirroring the approach implemented by Queensland’s Liberal-National government after its election victory in 2024.
Under the proposed changes, children as young as 14 would be tried in adult courts and possibly face life terms.
“There are too many victims and not enough consequences,” the premier, Jacinta Allan, said.
About one-third of youths in the children’s court were sentenced to jail for aggravated home invasion or aggravated carjacking, she said.
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Children who commit violent crimes, including home invasion, aggravated home invasion, recklessly or intentionally causing injury and aggravated carjacking, would instead be dealt with exclusively in the county court.
“By moving these particular offences into the county court, we know these children will face adult sentencing, which means more jail and longer jail sentences,” the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, said.
The principle of jail as a last resort would also be removed and judges forced to prioritise community safety in their sentencing decisions.
The laws will be introduced to parliament before the end of 2025, but no date has been set for when they would take effect.
Allan also apologised to victims of crime caught up in home invasions, carjacking incidents and machete attacks.
The opposition leader, Brad Battin, accused the Allan government of ripping off a headline from Queensland but not putting in the context to “keep Victorians safe”.
Queensland implemented its “adult crime, adult time” laws in response to a number of crimes that shocked the state, including a 17-year-old teenager fatally stabbing Emma Lovell in a Boxing Day home invasion in 2022 and the death of 70-year-old Vyleen White, who was killed by a teenager in a February 2024 car jacking outside a shopping centre.
A teenage boy, now aged 17, on Wednesday faced sentencing in the Queensland supreme court after pleading guilty to murder over White’s death at Redbank Plains shopping centre, west of Brisbane.
White’s husband, who was in the gallery with his three daughters, expressed his anger over the “injustice” of his wife’s murder.
“My wife and partner of 50 years is gone, and with her a part of me is gone,” Victor White said in a victim impact statement read by the prosecution.
Chief Justice Helen Bowskill adjourned her sentencing decision to Thursday.
The LNP’s youth crime laws were expanded in May to cover 33 serious offences, including attempted murder, rape, attempted rape and torture.
Queensland’s deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, said the state government was “very proud” of its laws.
“There’s lots more work to do, but it is encouraging to see other jurisdictions, particularly Labor jurisdictions, strongly support Queensland’s strong stance against crime.”
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Monique Hurley, an associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was “deeply concerning that these laws are spreading across the country” as part of a national trend of government’s doubling down on “reckless laws to jail more children”.
“In an alarming race to the bottom, the Allan government is copying the Crisafulli government’s harmful youth justice laws in Queensland – laws so extreme that they required Queensland’s own human rights protections to be overridden,” she said.
In Victoria, criminal offences spiked by 15.7% in the year to mid-2025, fuelled by thefts, home invasions and repeat youth offenders.
About 1,100 youths aged 10 to 17 were arrested a combined 7,000 times, according to the latest crime statistics.
Multiple advocacy groups including the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Victoria Legal Aid, Jesuit Social Services and frontline service the Youth Junction condemned the proposed laws, warning they were punitive responses that would condemn youth offenders to a life behind bars.
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight said the state was signing the state’s first treaty at the same time the “premier wants to sign kids’ lives away who made a mistake”.
“Victoria is a cruel and unforgiving state where children cannot make a mistake. Punishing trauma is not the answer,” she said.
Victoria Legal Aid’s chief executive Toby Hemming said it represented thousands of children in the youth justice system who had experienced deep trauma, disadvantage or injustice.
“Some have committed violent crimes, and many have been victims of crime themselves. These children are in urgent need of support to help them build stable, positive lives and avoid reoffending, which the adult justice system is not designed to do,” he said.
The Youth Junction’s chief executive Blake Edwards said the new laws assumed young people can “fully consider the long-term consequences of their actions – an expectation that does not reflect the realities of trauma-affected youth”.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe called for a federal intervention, pointing to the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy’s, commitment to impose sanctions on state and territories that fail to make progress on Closing the Gap targets.
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