Member for Barwon Roy Butler MP is continuing to talk to stakeholders, in his push to set up residential alternatives to sending kids to gaol.

In short

• Compulsory Residential Option: Barwon MP Roy Butler is lobbying for a new option—a mandated residential program—for young offenders of minor crimes, as an alternative to juvenile detention.
• National Parks Agreement: Mr. Butler has an “in-principle agreement” with National Parks to use existing, suitable sites like properties with shearing quarters and residences for the trial.
• Pathway to Employment: The program could include cadetships offered by National Parks, providing young people who complete the program with a direct pathway into a job.

“National Parks could be ideal,” Mr Butler told Back Country Bulletin.

“For example one has shearing quarters, a camp kitchen and manages residences and would lend itself to a youth program.”

“We’ve got in principal agreement from National Parks for that to happen. And even an offer from national parks of the possibility of cadet ships for some of the young people who come through the program.

“They could actually walk into a job at the end.”

Mr Butler has been pushing for change, and lobbying for youth crime to be tackled in the Far West in news ways.

He has long argued for a mandated, residential option for young offenders – something between being released back into the community and being sent to custody.

He is calling for a trial to give magistrates the power to refer young offenders to compulsory residential programs as an alternative to incarceration in Juvenile Justice for minor or lower-level crimes.

This article appeared on Back Country Bulletin on 16 November 2025.