An empty prison farm for teenage offenders, or 100,000 more surgeries: Victoria’s leaders launch their campaigns 13 days out

Thirteen days before Victorians vote, the two people who want to lead the state used their campaign launches on Sunday to make two very different pitches: one about teenage crime, the other about hospital waiting lists.

What is the bootcamp?

Jess Wilson promised that a Coalition government would turn the former Dhurringile Prison, near Murchison in northern Victoria, into a bootcamp for young offenders aged 14 to 17.

Courts would be able to send them there as an alternative to a community corrections order or another custodial sentence. Unlike existing youth justice orders, taking part would be compulsory: a daily routine of physical activity, farm work, cleaning, maintenance and cooking, alongside education.

Wilson said the program was about “instilling the discipline and respect” and “giving kids a second chance”. It is based on Queensland’s Circuit Breaker program, which critics say could put young people at risk of harm or abuse.

The Coalition did not say what the bootcamp would cost, how many young people it would hold or when it would open. A Labor spokesperson called it a “half-baked thought bubble”, and said Labor had a fully costed $204 million plan of its own for rehabilitation detention, announced last week.

Why Dhurringile?

The prison closed in September 2024. Parliament was told last year that maintaining it cost just over $2 million in the 12 months after it closed, and it has earned nothing from leasing or farming since. Greater Shepparton City Council looked at buying it and withdrew, and last year the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation were negotiating to buy it.

The Nationals’ candidate for Shepparton, Shane Sali, backed the plan, saying new activity there would bring opportunities to the area.

What else did the Coalition promise?

Wilson also promised 3,000 more police, protective services officers back at train stations and 200 more at high-risk shopping centres, “adult crime, adult time” laws for 25 serious offences before Christmas, a stamp duty exemption for first home buyers on properties up to $1 million, the scrapping of the emergency services tax, and repeal of Victoria’s treaty with First Peoples. She promised no new or increased taxes.

“We have a mountain to climb, 16 seats to win,” she said.

What did Labor offer?

At Moonee Ponds, Carroll put health first: 100,000 extra planned surgeries in public hospitals for $1.17 billion, and 500,000 extra specialist appointments for $195 million. Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said 30% of the surgeries would be in regional Victoria.

Carroll promised to cut emergency department waits by 20%, halve surgery waiting lists and make Labor “the party of free dental”, building on earlier promises of 20 free dental clinics and 750 more nurses across 12 emergency departments. On crime, he pointed to 1,500 more police and a second police academy in Melbourne’s west, and accused the Liberals of promising the world to everyone knowing they could not deliver it.

What does it mean for voters?

The two launches put the choice plainly. The Coalition led with youth crime and police; Labor led with hospitals and dental care, and with questions about what the Coalition’s promises cost. For a family waiting on a hip replacement, or a shop owner in a suburb hit by break-ins, the two launches offered very different answers to what the next government should fix first.