{
  "id": 20034297,
  "title": "Even Labor MPs are at a loss over the Victorian premier’s ‘tough love’ plan for youth offenders",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/14/even-labor-mps-are-at-a-loss-over-the-victorian-premiers-tough-love-20034297",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-14T19:00:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian Australia",
    "slug": "the-guardian-australia",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/nov/15/victoria-premier-ben-caroll-youth-crime-offenders-plan-ntwnfb"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Labor MPs are expressing confusion and concern over Victorian Premier Ben Carroll's \"tough love\" plan for youth offenders, a $204 million initiative that involves sending children committing low to mid-level offenses to secure facilities for schooling, drug and alcohol treatment, and life skills. The plan, announced last week, has legal experts and human rights groups criticizing it as \"imprisoning children as therapeutic\" and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service calling it \"mandatory sentencing dressed up as political leadership.\" Union movement and other legal and human rights groups have also voiced their opposition to the proposal. Even within the Labor party, factional lines are showing concern, with some MPs expressing frustration that the new leadership has \"overseen the trashing of the government's legacy and instead delivered an election campaign focused almost exclusively on the Big Build royal commission and law and order.\" A separate poll indicates that Labor's primary vote has dropped to 18%, the lowest in its history, and they are currently 18 points behind the Coalition on crime.",
  "summary": "MPs across factional lines share concerns about policy that legal expert says ‘paints the imprisonment of children as therapeutic’ Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast Until December last year, Meena Singh was the Victorian commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people, a role that saw her advocating for some of the state’s most vulnerable children. She had held…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}