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Police would gain sweeping powers to search Victorians for knives and serious youth offenders would face a bootcamp-style program if the Liberals win next year’s state election.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin will use Saturday’s Liberal Party state council to make the $100 million law-and-order election promise, in one of his first major policy announcements.
Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The announcement comes as the Victorian Liberals intensify their focus on crime, dominating question time with law-and-order issues and flooding social media with criticism of the Allan government’s response to youth crime.
Battin’s speech will include a pledge to introduce Jack’s Law, giving police and protective service officers power to screen people for knives with hand-held metal detectors in all public places, including transport zones and shopping centres.
“Jack’s Law for Victoria is a real solution to take knives and machetes off our streets as opposed to Labor spending $13 million on machete bins in the hope violent offenders will stop by a police station and drop off their weapons,” Battin will tell the conference.
“If we are serious about stopping violence, then police need the tools and the laws to act. We must stand with them in the fight against crime.”
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Premier Jacinta Allan has faced calls to bring in Jack’s Law as the city reels following the shocking stabbing murder of two children in Cobblebank, in the city’s outer west, last weekend.
It was introduced in Queensland in 2023 following the stabbing death of Jack Beasley in 2019 and has so far led to getting 1200 weapons off the street.
Beasley’s parents have urged the premier to introduce the same police powers in Victoria, but the government has maintained its recently expanded stop and search laws have been highly effective – with more than 10,000 weapons seized this year.
Jack’s Law has been criticised by some experts as being largely symbolic rather than tackling the root cause of knife crime, with fears it would unfairly target minorities.
Battin will also use the state conference to announce plans to establish a Victorian-first “residential and responsibility program” called Restart.
The bootcamp-style initiative would be a structured, live-in program for serious and repeat offenders aged between 12 and 17, and feature mandatory physical and emotional activities to build discipline and confidence.
It would be designed to provide a pathway out of crime through “discipline, education, counselling and community support”.
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“It will focus participants on respecting the law, finishing school, getting a job, and becoming contributors to their community,” Battin will tell the conference.
The party would also introduce a program called Youthstart designed to steer youth away from crime.
It would invest in community-based interventions such as youth justice hubs, risk-based diversion, trauma-informed therapy, mentoring and family-based case management.
“Fixing the crime crisis is not just about deterrence and punishment, it is also about prevention and rehabilitation,” Battin will say.
“We believe in law and order. We believe in personal responsibility. And we know fewer crimes means fewer victims.”
The policies appear to mirror bootcamp and youth intervention programs recently introduced by the Liberal governments in the Northern Territory and Queensland as part of a youth crime crackdown.
Allan has this year introduced a suite of law-and-order reforms after coming under intense scrutiny over rising crime rates.
Last month, parliament passed stricter bail conditions for serious repeat offenders and new “post and boast” laws targeting criminals who film their offences.
A statewide ban on machetes also came into effect at the start of September, carrying penalties of up to two years’ prison or a $47,000 fine. An amnesty for people to surrender the weapons is in place until November 30.
While the Liberals will be keen to refocus on policy, the two-day state conference is set to be dominated by high-profile internal disputes plaguing the party.
On Thursday, party director Stuart Smith resigned after messages of him making derogatory jokes about women in the party were leaked and published.
Liberal state president Phil Davis – an ally of Smith – will be challenged by his predecessor Greg Mirabella at the meeting of party faithful on Saturday. Most members of the administrative committee will also be challenged.
Tensions over the $1.5 million loan the party agreed to loan former leader John Pesutto, to avoid him being bankrupted after losing a defamation case brought by Liberal MP Moira Deeming, are set to loom over the conference.
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