00:00David Epelina should have been back on the job with his concreting team this morning.
00:06Devastated for his family, he's only 19, no one should bury their son.
00:15The tradie was killed while on his motorbike in Preston early on Sunday.
00:20Police say he was hit by a stolen car, allegedly carrying a 16-year-old passenger.
00:25He was just a loving kid, he would always bring back his snickers, a red bull for the
00:29boys, you know what I mean, to hand them out.
00:31His death was the second in a month allegedly linked to teenagers in stolen cars, putting
00:37a renewed focus on the state's youth crime crisis.
00:40We're having discussions as colleagues and this has been well reported too with Victoria
00:44Police, the courts and the youth justice sector about what more we need to do.
00:48High on the agenda is walking back a promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility
00:53to 14.
00:54I approach each and every one of these decisions as Minister for Children with the rights of
00:58children first and foremost in my mind.
01:00It's been consulting with, I understand from the information I've received, stakeholders
01:05like the Police Association, which shares our view that there's no case for raising
01:10the age to 14.
01:12In the year to March, the number of offences committed by children aged between 15 and
01:1717 in Victoria rose by 24 per cent according to the most recent crime data.
01:23The number of offences by kids aged 10 to 14 jumped 10 per cent.
01:28In parliament this week, the government's youth justice bill, which would raise the
01:31age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to 12, is due to be debated in the upper house.
01:36What's not included in the bill is a further Labor commitment to raise the age to 14 by
01:422027.
01:43It's totally chaotic.
01:44It's a youth justice bill of over 1,000 pages.
01:48I've been informed this morning that the Allen-Labor government is rushing to create amendments
01:53to this.
01:54For youth sector workers, that's a cause for concern.
01:58Raising the age doesn't mean no consequences, to be clear.
02:03It just means different consequences to policing, courts and jails.
02:08Consequences that will become more clear this week.
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