Karen Chhour: Minister for Children on government's new youth crime plans

The Children's Minister is hoping the military-style academies will incentivise Judges to sentence youth offenders.  

The Government's introducing a label for teens aged 14-17 with multiple offences: ‘Young Serious Offender’.  

It's also looking at establishing a new military style academy - currently in the pilot stage. 

Minister for Children Karen Chhour told Mike Hosking “It’s still at the discretion of the judge – but what we can do is send a clear message to the judiciary that the public’s had enough.” 

Chhour said “I have every confidence that this will give these young people some hope for a better future.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More details and what these military style academies will look
like as like as part of the Crime Package update yesterday.
So we've got a new declaration for young offenders. Youth
court judge will have the power to send people off
to an academy. The Minister for Children, Karen chawles with
us good morning. Way, as far as these new laws
are concerned for these youth offenders, does a judge have
to or is it discretionary?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It's still the discretion of the judge our job. We
cannot make judges do things, but what we can do
is send a very clear message to the judiciary that
the public have had enough. They're sick of the crime
that's going on in the communities, and they're sick of
the victims that are suffering in our communities.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Most people would agree with that. Do you think the judges,
though broadly speaking, are on board with this or not.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I'm hoping when they see that we've created a
program that will give these young people a lot more
hope coming out than when they went in. That will
give the judges an incentive to actually use this sentencing power.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
This will be one of the problems with the program.
It's still too small, and by the time they start
sentencing all these kids into these programs, they're not going
to be able to cope.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
So the pilot program is a small program because we
have to run it under the current legislation. Once the
YSO legislation goes through, we'll be ready to ramp that
program up. But until then, we have to run a
program under the current legislation.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And everything you know about what you're going to be
introducing in this program, how confident are you that it
will actually turn some younger lives around.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'm actually really certain that this will make a real
difference in these young people's lives. That's what I came
here for. If it wasn't going to I wouldn't do it.
I have every confidence that this will give these young
people some hope for a better future.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well I hope so. Karen saw the Children's Minister For.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
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Speaker 1 (01:52):
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