Reducing truancy will reduce crime/ break the tsunami’s cycle.
In Victoria, school non-attendance doubled in ten years.
Reported in the Herald Sun on 18 October 2026, ‘Truancy puts kids at risk’ exposes the latest federal school attendance data showing that in Victoria nearly 40 per cent of students miss a day or more a week of school, up from 23 per cent a decade ago.
That date, a decade ago, is ironically about when CAA first identified that Victoria was heading for a crime tsunami.
This is no coincidence.
Since 2006, the Department of Education has had the power to issue a $102 fine, send an official warning, send an infringement notice and then proceed to court action.
However, the department has not exercised this power as yet, with schools working with parents to address attendance barriers.
If you don’t use it, you should lose it, and the power should be transferred to law enforcement, the Police.
The approach in Victoria has failed in the education system as well as law and order, making Victoria’s crime rate higher than NSW, a much bigger state, and Victorians are sick of inaction.
Additionally, Victoria Police have indicated they will take this failed “kumbaya” approach to policing juveniles by issuing field warnings instead of prosecuting perpetrators; It just won’t work.
This approach has been prevalent in the courts, and look where that has got us.
This comes as governments in other states fine and prosecute parents, with NSW leading the way with maximum fines of $11,000.
NSW has taken legal action against 1700 students in the past three years, official figures show. It has the lowest absentee rate in the country.
A comparison between Victoria and NSW shows where Victoria’s crime problems stem from.
Using the latest directly comparable ABS data—2024–25 youth offenders aged 10–17—Victoria’s rate was 2,337 per 100,000, compared with 1,718 per 100,000 in NSW. Victoria’s rate was therefore about 36% higher. (abs )
This compares police-recorded alleged offenders, not convictions or the overall crime rate.
‘Idle hands are the devil’s playground’.
It is not a fable to be dismissed, but it provides the nexus between crime and truancy.
When young children have no boundaries and can dictate their life choices before they understand that actions always have consequences, good and bad, it ingrains in them that their behaviour has no boundaries other than their own whim; their concept of accountability is sanitised.
Victoria has moved to a State where children can basically do what they want without consequences.
Parents take the easy option to excuse and acquiesce to the child’s protestations about going to school, and while we acknowledge that there are genuine cases, this does not account for the large disparity between Victoria and NSW.
Schooling is a critical part of their future, and yet in Victoria we trivialise the role of schools by pandering to children’s caprices.
The role of parents is critical, and it starts when the child is born; from then, too many parents excuse bad behaviour or even mild defiance. Once a parent capitulates to a child’s will, even when the child is very young, the die is cast for the parent as much as for the child.
The solutions are not easy, but they are available; all that is needed is for the government to adopt changes to the current model, both within the education system and the legal processes.
Truancy needs to be elevated to a criminal act either by the child or, more particularly, the parent or guardian, using the punitive legislation that already exists.
In taking this approach, there is essentially a need for support for parents, and the most practical would be parent training, as parenting is one of the most important things we can do in our lives, for which there is little or no formal training,
Additionally, the youth programs that were discontinued under Chief Commissioner Nixon, ironically nearly a decade ago, ‘Operation New Start’ needs to be revisited and the program updated and reintroduced.
The concept was designed to support parents and ensure children went to school. Operated by volunteers and supported by Police, teachers, and Service clubs, children showing signs of truancy received direct mentoring support, and the program ensured they had the necessary resources and actually got out of bed and attended school.
Collaboration among police, local teachers, schools, and the child’s parents had a substantial, positive impact on the child’s truancy.
The argument was that the program was too labour-intensive for police and that the Force withdrew it.
Whether the program was successful or not was apparently not a consideration, reflecting poorly on the Police administration of that era as a contributor to the problems we now have.
Operation New Start was not the only casualty of that era; the Police In Schools Program, the High Ropes Course ceased, and the attempt to shut down Blue Light Discos failed, but the program was reduced dramatically without the overt support of Victoria Police. Although Police volunteers tried valiantly to keep the program going, few discos remain today.
Historical records clearly show the adverse impact of that change in attitude to policing and management of young people in this State.
The demise of these programs may have had more to do with the influence of the Teachers Union and was as much a political decision as a conscious decision by the Police executive to stymie programs that demonstrated they worked.
Reported to us by former police members involved in the school’s program, the vast majority of schools were open to the concept and worked constructively with Police, who were welcomed for their input, but some schools that seemed heavily unionised bordered on hostility towards Police in their schools.
It is imperative that a formal inquiry be held into the ineffectiveness of truancy management in this State, and the adverse impact of management of juvenile offenders within the legal system, avoiding punitive accountability for children and their parents.
With a view to establishing a new paradigm in managing this crime issue consisting of,
- Parental training and support.
- Effective coordination of police proactive initiatives, schools and the courts to benefit the child while respecting the victim and examining the culpability of the child’s parents.
- Provide legislation that equips the various components of the scheme with the power to function through punitive measures against the parents where appropriate.
- Legislate compulsory recording of all truancy so a clear picture evolves.
In summary, the police should apply the sanctions based on evidence, not solely on the accepted whims of professionals in these spheres of responsibility.
There is a strong argument that the police should provide the leadership in establishing and running this inquiry, supported by other professions and professionals, as their influence is critical to the future of any recommendations.
Our children deserve no less.