Crouch slams government for voting down youth crime reforms

Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch has slammed the State Government and Central Coast Labor MPs for voting against the Opposition’s Crimes Legislation Amendment (Youth Crime) Bill 2025.

“The Minns Labor Government has walked away from protecting regional communities like the Central Coast dealing with the youth crime crisis, voting against the Opposition’s strong bail reforms in Parliament recently,” Crouch said.

“Despite me outlining the harrowing stories of many Coast locals who have been directly impacted by repeat youth offenders, this fell on deaf ears with the Government and our local Labor MPs being more concerned about the perpetrators’ rights rather than the victims’.”

Crouch said the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Youth Crime) Bill 2025, introduced in March by the Opposition, offered tougher measures than Labor’s changes to the Bail Act, by: expanding the definition of repeat offences beyond serious break and enter and motor vehicle theft, to include all serious indictable offences like murder or sexual assault; introducing electronic monitoring and a mandatory curfew as conditions of bail; revoking bail if there is a breach of the bail conditions, if another charge is laid while on bail, or if there is any interference with the electronic monitoring device; and elevating the voice of victims in the court through the use of victim impact statements.

“These amendments were reasonable and practical measures that back in our outstanding police and also stand up for victims, and make sure that repeat youth offenders actually face real consequences for their actions,” Crouch said.

He called on Labor MPs to spend some time listening directly to the victims and then tell them why they didn’t support tougher penalties for repeat youth offenders.

“What we saw was typical of the Labor Government, blocking sensible solutions that could help deal with this crisis, simply because it wasn’t their idea,” he said.