The St Kilda Police and Citizen’s Youth Club (PCYC) is one of a number of community youth organisations closing its doors due to financial woes. It’s also one of the organisations offering Victorian youths support when they need it most—a service that can be invaluable in keeping young people out of the path of crime.
While an election may have been held already in 2025, Liberal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley appears to have wasted no time in campaigning over Victoria’s surging crime problem.
Crime in Victoria is the highest since records started being kept 20 years ago, with offences like robbery and sexual assault rising.
Ley says being a victim of crime in Victoria is becoming all too common.
“You can’t speak to a Victorian person these days without a personal story or a personal connection with a victim of crime, that’s how it feels and Melbourne has gone from the most liveable city to the crime capital,” she told media on Oct. 15.
“Sometimes crime can seem remote from our ordinary lives until you become a victim of crime, or you know someone in your family and friends who has become a victim of crime, then it’s very real, it’s very personal and it’s terrifying. It can change your life.”
The opposition leader, who herself once lived in Melbourne, said life in the city was becoming more dangerous, from walking on the street to taking the train and even just shopping.
“And youth crime, unfortunately, is on the rise but what that means it attracts illegal gangs [and] organised crime,” she said.
“I hear that illicit tobacco is more lucrative than other drugs like cocaine, and that means that unfortunately victims of crime will be present and increasing. And when you consider that there’s 1,000 young offenders that are cycling through the bail system being released continually onto the streets to commit more crimes, you realise that this Labor government has not got the situation under control,” she said.
Putting forth a pitch for her party, Ley said a Liberal government would focus heavily on law and order.
As for the St Kilda PCYC, Ley says the organisation is doing it tough.
“Funding has dropped, programs have been cut, and demand for support has never been higher,” she said, adding that both youth crime and the police force are being stretched to the limit.
“If we are serious about safer communities, the answer is not just tougher laws. We need to invest in prevention, back our police, and support the organisations breaking the cycle every single day,” she said.
Ley challenged Premier Jacinta Allan to get out and meet victims of crime.
“Premier, how many victims of crime have you personally met, listened to their stories, and understood what is actually happening to them in their lives?” she said.
Victoria’s Crime Surge
In September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published data showing a surge in crime experienced in Victoria in 2024.In that year, the state reported 112 victims of homicide and related offences, with 67 percent of acts carried out in residential locations.
Sexual assaults in the state were also up by 13 percent from 2023, with 7,121 victims having been reported.
A third of Victoria’s sexual assault victims were aged between 10 and 17.
Robberies increased 16 percent from the year before, with 37 percent of victims being aged 10 to 17. More than half of the reported robberies involved the use of a weapon and 31 percent happened on the street or a footpath.
In 2024, there were 45,895 victims of unlawful entry with intent recorded in Victoria, an increase of 25 percent.
According to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), Victorians are reporting a stolen car every 44 minutes, while Queensland, with its staunch take on crime under the Liberal Crisafulli government, saw the largest reduction in car thefts—a drop of 11 percent.
Key offences were also allocated sterner bail tests.
