John Pesutto says the Andrews government is ignoring a ‘real crisis’, despite police warnings that referring to ‘gangs’ is counter-productive

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Victorian opposition has characterised African youth “gangs” in Melbourne as a crisis, contradicting evidence from the state’s police and crime statistics agency.

Media and political attention on African youth crime in Melbourne has been prompted by a series of recent high-profile incidents, particularly in the city’s western suburbs.

That includes an alleged assault of a police officer, a brawl, and property damage at a community centre and Airbnb properties.

But Victoria police have argued for a level-headed response, describing the youths as “thugs” who are not part of organised gangs, and saying there had been no increase in offending.

Police deputy commissioner Andrew Crisp last week urged the media not to refer to youth thugs as “gangs”, saying it only served to stroke the egos of those involved.

He said his force was “well and truly on top of” youth crime in Victoria.

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But on Tuesday the state’s shadow attorney general, John Pesutto, said he respectfully disagreed.



“In Melbourne, particularly in recent weeks, there has just been a spate of really brazen and in some cases quite horrific crimes committed by gangs or gang network and related violence,” Pesutto told the ABC.

“So there is a real crisis. Daniel Andrews, premier, and his ministers are acting as though there’s nothing to worry about, and that’s really infuriating communities around Melbourne.

Pesutto said “pretending there was no problem” was not going to help, and light sentences were sending the wrong signal to offenders.

“What we’ve seen though, in recent times, is we have seen gangs and networks of violence where there has been an overrepresentation of Sudanese and South Sudanese,” he told the ABC.

“Now, we all want to be very careful here and we know how important it is to engage. But it is also important to not pretend there is nothing to see here.”

Data from Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency shows youth crime has fallen considerably as a proportion of total crime in the past 10 years. People under 25 were responsible for 40% of all incidents in 2015-16, compared with 50% in 2015-2016.

The data shows people born in Sudan are a tiny minority in Victorian crime statistics, though overrepresented compared with their share of the total population. The total number of offences they committed are a fraction of those committed by Australians or New Zealanders.

Between January 2014 and December 2016, people born in Sudan were responsible for 666 of the 42,502 offences in Victoria, or about 1.56%.

The state opposition has proposed a hardline, incarceration-focused response, including presumptions against bail, mandatory sentencing for those convicted of repeat serious offences, and a new prison for juveniles.



Police minister Lisa Neville on Tuesday said there was a “small, but core group” of “criminal thugs, or street gangs” who were causing significant harm.



“This is a small but core group, the vast majority of the African community are law abiding citizens, but this core group of African youths are causing huge fear,” Neville said.

“It’s inappropriate, it’s unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated.”

She hit back at claims the government was not doing enough to combat youth crime.

Neville said police had been given more frontline resources, and the government had introduced youth control orders and made changes to parole laws to place stricter controls on young offenders after their release from detention.

She denied there was any link between dealing with the problem and Labor’s prospects at the next state election.



“My focus has always just been on improving the community safety, reducing crime and harm in our community, it’s not about elections and the next election, I can tell you that,” she said.

The acting chief police commissioner, Shane Patton, said he did not view the recent incidents as an “escalation, if you like, of offending”.

But he said police recognised African youths were over-represented in serious and violent offending, and public disorder. He said it was a misconception that police had not acknowledged the problem.

Patton said police would not shy away from describing groups of offenders as “gangs”, but the individuals involved were not what police would traditionally consider organised crime gangs.



“They’re behaving like street gangs, so let’s call them that, that’s what they are, they’re behaving like street gangs. We acknowledge that,” he said.

“It’s important to stress though, we don’t want to elevate these young thugs, these young criminals to any status or give them any type of credibility that they don’t already have.”

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Police say the root cause of criminality among African communities is complex, and involves disadvantage, unemployment and disengagement from society.

South Sudanese and Somali community leaders told Fairfax Media this week that the crimes involved a small core of young men who were not getting proper support when released from detention.

On Monday the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and cabinet minister Greg Hunt, who is from Victoria, fired a broadside at the Andrews government over the issue.

Turnbull, in his first press conference of 2018, said the federal government was “very concerned” about the “growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria”.



“This is a failure of the Andrews government,” Turnbull said. “Victoria police is a huge organisation – much larger than the federal police. It’s got the capacity to do the job.

“But what is lacking is the political leadership and the determination on the part of Premier Andrews to make sure the great policemen and women of Victoria have the leadership, the direction, and the confidence of the government to get on with the job.”

Turnbull’s intervention provoked an angry response from the Victorian government. The state’s attorney general, Martin Pakula, said the comments were an “embarrassing low from a pathetic, do nothing PM”.

“His interventions may be worth more if his own government wasn’t so indolent and chaotic. A joke,” Pakula tweeted.

Martin Pakula (@MartinPakulaMP) A new embarrassing low from a pathetic, do nothing PM. Seems to think his Government’s job is to take pot shots at Labor States (Sharks - WA; Energy - SA; now this). His interventions may be worth more if his own Government wasn’t so indolent & chaotic. A joke https://t.co/5adisj5ef1

Last year, the South Sudanese Community Association acknowledged and expressed serious concern that “a number of young people of South Sudanese origin have engaged in serious criminal activities”.

But it warned media coverage of the crimes was fuelling “negative public perceptions of Australian South Sudanese people”.

“The community is concerned that the level of negative media attention it is receiving is increasing the incidence of racial discrimination and stereotyping for the community in general, especially people being wrongly associated to the so-called ‘Apex’ gang,” the association said in a submission to an inquiry into migrant resettlement outcomes.

“The brunt of the negative attention is falling on innocent community members and is a major concern.”