School site lockdown lifts the lid on youth crime

THE FORMER Wonthaggi Secondary College bordered by McBride Avenue, Baillieu Street, McKenzie Street and Watt Street is now in total lockdown with heavy mesh perimeter fencing and padlocks to shut out trespassers.

Repeated callouts to entry alarms at the powered site have not been slated against any one intruder type but the Wonthaggi YES Youth Hub across the road from the former High School says young people sleeping rough are often blamed.

Nationals’ Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath has accused the Government of “not prioritising community safety”.

Ms Bath took Labor to task in State Parliament calling for action after it was revealed that Gippsland police watchhouses are being shut due to a lack of resources.

“The community deserves to know what other watchhouses are closed and why specialist crime investigation teams are being shut down in Gippsland,” said Ms Bath. 

Watchhouses temporarily hold alleged criminals for investigation, processing, and mental health assessments.

“Crime is rising so we need our police officers on the streets and not tied up transporting alleged criminals for processing when it can be done locally.”

Victoria Police’s most recent annual report discloses there were three hundred and eighteen fewer police officers in Victoria than the previous year.

Ms Bath said Labor’s focus is on camouflaging a crime crisis and not keeping people and children safe.

“It is hard to defend resource shuffling that has resulted in over twenty-five officers being pulled from the sexual offences and child abuse investigations team in Bass Coast, Baw Baw and Latrobe or the loss of over five full-time officers in the Bass Coast.

“Our hardworking police officers are struggling to get criminals off the streets.

“The community’s experiences are reinforced by the crime statistics that reveal a twenty-two per cent increase in crime in Gippsland over the past ten years.

“Labor can’t manage rising crime and Victorians are paying the price.” 

While not amongst the highest reported areas for crime in regional Victoria, Bass Coast with a population increase of twenty-five per cent over the past five years has seen a one hundred and twenty-nine per cent surge, or more than double the crimes committed by young offenders aged from ten to twenty-four.

The latest available crime statistics for Bass Coast show out of eight hundred and forty reported crimes for the region, one hundred and eighty-six or twenty-two per cent of reportable incidents are committed by children under seventeen.

Crimes committed by children aged from ten to seventeen are more than double the crimes reported for eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds.

The story for young offenders in South Gippsland is no better.

Although crime numbers are smaller for South Gippsland with a negligible four per cent rise in population over the past five years, youth-related crime has jumped one hundred and forty-six per cent 

Bass Coast Council is yet to respond to questions regarding the heavy-duty perimeter fencing surrounding the former Wonthaggi Secondary College site.

Bass Coast Shire Council has played a key role in driving the YES Youth Hub by providing advocacy training and helping to design the outside spaces in the Youth Hub’s Watt Street headquarters according to their website.