In the lead up to the 2022 Victorian state election, the Human Rights Law Centre this week launched its state election platform calling on all parties to end the state’s mass imprisonment crisis and create a fairer legal system for everyone.

The Human Rights Law Centre calls on all parties to commit to:

1. Giving children the brightest future possible by raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old;

2. Fixing the state’s dangerous and discriminatory bail laws by repealing the reverse-onus provisions in the bail laws;

3. Implementing the United Nations anti-torture treaty – the Optonal Protocal to the Convention Against Toture – ahead of the looming January 2023 deadline; 

4. Ending the practice of police investigating police by creating an independent and best practice Police Ombudsman to investigate complaints of police misconduct; 

5. Getting public intoxication reform right by ensuring that the police have no role to play in the public health response;

6. Stopping prison construction and working towards closing prisons rather that opening new and expanding existing ones; and

7. Strengthening the Charter of Human Rights. 

Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:

“Victoria is in the midst of a mass imprisonment crisis and the state election comes at a critical juncture, against the backdrop of a criminal legal system in dire need of overhaul. 

“Whichever party wins this November, they must stop propping up a system of cruelty and end this injustice. This starts with raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old and fixing the state’s dangerous and discriminatory bail laws. 

“Children belong in playgrounds and classrooms, not in prison and police cells. Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old is a simple commitment all parties can make to give Victorian children a brighter future.

“Victoria has some of Australia’s most dangerous and discriminatory bail laws that are needlessly removing people from their families and funnelling them into prisons to be warehoused on remand. Whoever wins the election, they must fix Victoria’s bail laws 

“The status quo of Victoria Police investigating themselves and dodging accountability for their actions must end. Effective and truly independent oversight of police misconduct in the form of a best practice Police Ombudsman is long overdue.

The Human Rights Law Centre’s election platform is available here.

Media contact:
Michelle Bennett: 0419 100 519