In our most recent article, “The 300 Club Phenomenon” at https://caainc.org.au/the-300-club-phenomenon/, the CAA has outlined the issues with the current approach to juvenile crime and what needs to be done to address them.
Setting out what drives the youth phenomena, the article identifies major causes and who is responsible for failures.
Fundamental to this piece is the impact of social cohesion failure.
Over the last 20 years, our society has been ruptured, changing it from a society that respects the variety of cultures and ethnicities of its population to one that is fractured along tribal lines.
Respect for the family is continually undermined by governments hell-bent on destroying the fabric of the family, as if it competes with it.
Respect has all but evaporated, and that is founded in the application of the laws of this State and overzealous governments creating cultural divisions by promoting individual tribes, blatantly for political reasons rather than what is best for our society, coupled with overt support for fringe groups not representative of the overall community but focused on small sectors of it. These highly visible and vocal activist groups are not representative of the community as they would have you believe, but are an anathema to it.
Australia, and in many ways, Victoria led the way in creating a cohesive society where new and old groups were treated with respect. However, today, state leaders are pitting one group against another, and this manifests most vividly in our Youth.
We have lived in harmony with other cultures, but today that harmony is being eroded from all directions, and it is worsening.
In the future, we predict that the fundamental building blocks of our society will continue to erode.
Among the areas under siege, the Courts are the most obvious and most vulnerable.
This vulnerability has been created from within the Court system itself, where activist justices work to erode the court’s power, all the while ignoring the realities of society and the victims.
Failing to read the room will be the Court’s demise.
The effect of these jurist activists is to render the legal system so ineffective that the Government will have no choice but to create more restrictive laws regarding the freedom and independence of the Courts, or otherwise, anarchy will prevail.
Further, the Courts have sidelined not only the victims in criminal matters but also the perpetrator’s family, abdicating them of any responsibility.
This is a critical failure, particularly in the management of juvenile criminals.
Most of the strategies favoured by activists is to attack the family, who must be cultivated to perform the critical task of guiding and or disciplining young people away from a life of crime. They see the family as the vulnerability, to destroying society.
There are, of course, families who nurture crime by either overt actions or sheer indifference; however, legislators must enact a penalty structure for parents whose children commit crimes. Hitting them in the hip pocket will be the most effective way to focus their minds on the parenting task.
Whether that is through reformation, distinct penalties, or a combination of both is moot; something must be done.
To rectify the issue, or at least put us on a path to recovery, we must rely on those justices who the activist agenda has not swayed to show leadership and, by example, highlight the weaknesses and or activism of their fellow judges by issuing penalties that highlight the failures of others; Leadership by a new, higher standard.
We, however, fear that until we have a government that focuses on governing for everyone rather than pet projects based on ethnicity (and votes), we are unlikely to see improvements anytime soon.
Activism is not confined to the Courts but high-profile, unlawful, and violent demonstrations on our streets in pursuit of an activist agenda is a standout act of insurrection.
There is little hope of reigning in uncontrollable activities – without taking back control of our streets.
The government’s inaction on this issue is tantamount to acquiescing to the lawlessness, something a government cannot and should not do under any circumstances.
This is not about the content of any demonstration, as peaceful demonstrations are a right we all possess; it is about the lawlessness that must be given no quarter.
Unfortunately, and we would argue deliberately, the Public Service appears to be a hotbed of alternative activist activity, and the concept of providing impartial advice to government ministers on policy matters has been lost; the Public Service has morphed into an arm of the government’s ideological agenda without a discernible gap to support the separation of powers concept and foundational to our democracy, which is fast becoming a myth.
Another area impacting our youth is education.
Schools are failing in their function to educate, and they cannot claim otherwise when they routinely send children home (with or without parental knowledge) rather than addressing any indiscretions by pupils in school, as was historically the case.
Moreover, the Schools are, as a matter of course, sidelining parents in the development of their children.
They have claimed a mantle of knowing what is best for a particular child or children in general and acting accordingly, often to the deliberate exclusion of parents. This approach aligns with the activist agendas in several social areas.
Children as young as the Preparatory year are being exposed to socially divisive issues as deliberate conditioning—a manipulation of young minds who should be educated, not manipulated, on an activist community construct.
The real damage, however, is the harm to the family cohesiveness, where the views imposed on young children may conflict with those of their parents, either culturally or otherwise.
Parents have little hope of influencing the development of children when the schools act as influences on activist agendas. This is particularly true of some ethnic families, aggravated by English not being their first language or the Australian culture being dissimilar to their own.
It is no wonder that there is an overrepresentation in the crime statistics of cultures, as arrivals in Australia in recent years have had their parental role subordinated..
The combination of these factors has eroded the concept of accountability within social cohesion, and inaction every day deepens the demise of the State and its residents.
Addressing all these issues is now a matter of urgency.
Society generally has lost any respect for law and order for many of the reasons highlighted here. The Victorian Government has played a significant role in the demise of said law and order as observed by the authors, and until that can be restored we are pushing the proverbial uphill. It will not be restored by this government.
I have a genuine fear for the future of this once great state of Victoria and the people who choose to live here.
It’s nice to see the CAA finally acknowledging that the problems we are seeing in society today are the result of a very broad complex of contributing problems that have been ignored for such a long time. Because of this it is not a simple or quick fix and there is no “one size fits all”.
The early childhood specialists have been shouting loud and clear for decades about how important the early years are in developing the very vulnerable brain, often starting before birth. Neglect or damage done at this very young age, often unintentionally, can be lifelong. Yet society continually dismisses these specialists, often specialist teachers, with attitudes like “What would they know?”, “They (the children) will grow out of it”, “It will be fixed when they get to school” (Sorry it’s too late by then – damage is done), or “It’s the parent’s fault”.
Contributing to the problem has been the need for families to move away from extended family support to find work and accommodation.
Add to that the increasing trend of social media such as Tictok and Instagram who promote “Go no contact” (estrangement) from extended family, because you don’t like how your parents did things, or because you “don’t like the personality” of a particular family member. This is a devastating situation.
I have been concerned by regular articles by the CAA which have a tendency towards fixing the increasing problems with “control” and “fear” and “blame this or that person”. This is a very common attitude amongst Police. It has been the ways of our parents and grandparents who didn’t have the knowledge, information, research or education of today. “Control” is also an unfortunate approach taken by so many politicians and public servants (including police) who are in leadership positions.
“It takes a community to raise a child”, so why is “the community” turning on itself instead of working together? Why are narcissists allowed to destroy society in the name of “control”? Why aren’t people listening and helping instead of offering “platitudes” and then saying “not my problem”.
Where is empathy and compassion? The “specialists” I refer to above will tell you that those 2 attributes can be among things destroyed in that very early development of the brain.
Strangely enough, development of the things of which I speak do actually help people to take back “control”, unlike seeing everything as a nail and hitting it with a hammer.
Very fine article, the only problem is, who in power will take any notice, nor make any changes. Both Federal and State Governments have no idea, and are against any worthwhile changes to make life better for us citizens that obey the law, and then some of us are subjected to crimes by the repeat offenders.
I am glad I live in a rural area and not the city or suburbs of Melbourne.
Our State and Federal Governments, all of our institutions and our bureaucracies, have for many years been taken over by a philosophy that they know best and therefore should be controlling what we see, hear and think. So-called “experts” have been co-opted and positioned to drive cultural change that the average person neither wants nor needs.
Perhaps this is the logical outcome when so many people see the government as being responsible for their overall happiness and well-being in order to avoid personal responsibility. It’s a common catch-cry – “why don’t they fix it? Why don’t they do something about it?”.
Only when people are prepared to take back responsibility and control of their lives, and force government out of them, can things improve. We are a long way from that point and if history tells us anything, it is that things will need to get a lot worse before people take action. Then, and only then, will things change – initially through violent conflict, then ultimately through common sense and pragmatism.