Even Labor MPs are at a loss over the Victorian premier’s ‘tough love’ plan for youth offenders

<p>MPs across factional lines share concerns about policy that legal expert says ‘paints the imprisonment of children as therapeutic’</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily political email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p>Until December last year, Meena Singh was the Victorian commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people, a role that saw her advocating for some of the state’s most vulnerable children.</p><p>She had held the role since 2022. In all that time, she says, nobody from the Victorian government had approached her with a proposal like the one the Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, announced last week: a $204m “tough love” plan to send children who commit low and mid-level offences to secure facilities, including the former Malmsbury youth justice centre, for schooling, drug and alcohol treatment and life skills.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/nov/15/victoria-premier-ben-caroll-youth-crime-offenders-plan-ntwnfb">Continue reading...</a>