Victorians are rightly appalled by reports of organised crime figures who use children – some intellectually disabled – to carry out crimes like arson and carjacking.

Hiring children to carry out your dirty work for profit is evil.

Legislation introduced into the Victorian Parliament today will create a new aggravated offence of recruiting a child to commit a serious crime.

Perpetrators will face life in prison.

The offence applies whether the crime is carried out by the child or not.

How it works

Recruiting a child to carry out a crime is already an offence, and 64 charges have been laid.

Last year, Labor increased the maximum penalty from 10 to 15 years in prison for this existing offence.

The new aggravated offence takes it further – introducing a maximum life sentence if you recruit children to commit one of 71 specified serious crimes, including arson, carjacking and home invasion.

Maximum penalties set the benchmark for the seriousness of an offence.

When maximums increase, sentencing averages as a whole are more likely to increase.

To make both the existing and new offence easier to prosecute, the legislation also removes the requirement for the offender to know the child is underage.

Victoria Police’s Operation Eclipse has seen more than 65 arrests and 370 charges laid in connection to recent arson attacks.

We’ve given Victoria Police $5 million to boost tech in the State Command and Coordination Centre.

And with Adult Time for Violent Crime, all age groups know the chance of jail is stronger and sentences are longer.

Only Labor has new solutions to make life safer.