Battin vows to resign if crime rates persist as both parties copy Queensland

3 months ago 20

Opposition Leader Brad Battin says he will resign as premier if he wins the 2026 election and crime statistics in Victoria have not fallen by the end of his term.

The promise comes as shadow attorney-general James Newbury alleged the state’s judiciary are failing to hand down strong enough sentences partly due to allegiances to the Labor Party, and hinted that the Coalition was developing a policy to tackle the issue.

Speaking outside the Victorian parliament on Thursday, Battin was asked if Premier Jacinta Allan should promise to resign if her crime policies are not effective in reducing crime rates.

Earlier this week, the premier announced a raft of new measures in a bid to tackle the issue, including moving a range of serious offences from the Children’s Court to adult courts where they would attract longer sentences.

Battin said Allan may “not want to take that risk” because crime rates had continued to rise under her leadership, but went on to say he that he would make the pledge himself.

“If we’re elected next year, over that four-year term, and we come into 2030 for the election and crime statistics have not come down, I will step down,” Battin, a former police officer, said.

“If we can’t keep Victorians safe, then the government is failing in its duties.”

Speaking earlier on Thursday, Allan did not commit to resign and said she was focused on “seeing the job through”.

The opposition leader’s pledge mirrors a similar commitment made by then-opposition leader David Crisafulli during last year’s Queensland election campaign, when polling showed Queensland Labor was likely to lose for the first time since 2012. But he later walked back the commitment, saying the metric of whether or not he would hold on to the party leadership would instead be fewer victims “per capita”.

By comparison, the latest Resolve Political Monitor has the Victorian Coalition on track to lose the 2026 election, with a primary vote of 33 per cent that would not be enough to elevate them to power.

Battin is currently leading as preferred premier, with a net likeability of positive 9 compared to Allan’s minus 21 per cent.

In another echo of Queensland politics, Battin’s promise came after Allan this week announced an “adult time for violent crime” policy agenda that will impose significant changes to youth sentencing for serious offences. The Queensland LNP went to the election with an “adult crime, adult time” slogan.

The policy shift was in part informed by Labor Party research showing crime was a growing political problem for a government set to seek a historic fourth-term in 2026.

Legal and human right experts have condemned the plan as a punitive overreaction that would ruin the lives of young people and fail to reduce crime.

Newbury said on Thursday that the three main issues hindering the state’s crime rates are weak existing laws, an under resourcing of police, and a “problem with the judiciary” and the sentences they imposed on offenders, alleging some appointees were Labor aligned.

“Clearly, you’re seeing people who are delivering sentences who aren’t up for the job, there’s no doubt, and the community knows it,” he said. “Everyone knows it, but no one wants to talk about it.

“I completely understand the separation of powers. But there are three problems that are feeding into this crime crisis, and that is one of them.”

Newbury also hinted that the opposition was drafting policy in this space, but did not provide detail on what form this could take.

Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny revealed that Victoria had not convicted a single person under laws meant to stop adults who recruit children to perform violent offences, despite 32 charges laid over the past four years in this category. She said these statistics highlighted why the government was introducing reforms that will go further to address this problem and announced that as part of its planned reforms, the sentence will lift from 10 to 15 years.

Another bill will introduce a new aggravated offence for adults who recruit children for serious and violent crimes such as aggravated home invasions or aggravated carjacking.

“We need to make sure that these laws are drafted and work well with Victoria Police so they deliver the outcomes that our community needs,” Kilkenny said.

“This evolving, new pattern that we are seeing is not just happening in Victoria ... It is happening nationally, and it is happening across the world. ”

The Allan government is expected to make further announcements this week about its crime reforms, including further early intervention measures to divert children away from the justice system.

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