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Gavin Silbert Barrister
September 9, 2026 — 5:00am
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Violent crime is out of control in Victoria and there is undoubtedly a temptation to offer simple solutions, even when it’s clear they will not work.
A significant factor in this crisis is poor decision-making in the appointment of magistrates and judges. Parties of both political sides have used these government appointments as a way to reward and protect their supporters. They have used this power to ignore the public interest and fill the benches with friends and those to whom they see themselves as indebted.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson plans to split the Court of Appeal.Darrian Traynor
Occasionally a worthwhile appointment is made but during the 14 years Labor has been in power in Victoria there has been a host of entirely inappropriate appointments.
However, the radical solution proposed by Opposition Leader Jess Wilson is a retrograde step. If elected premier in November, she plans to increase prison sentences by appointing the Liberal Party’s preferred judges to the Court of Appeal**.** This would be enacted by splitting the Court of Appeal into two courts, a Court of Criminal Appeal and a Court of Civil Appeal, a policy that indicates a lack of understanding of the way the judicial system works.
Wilson’s expressed intention is to appoint “tough” new judges to the new criminal appeal court, jurists the opposition leader described as “additional judges specialising in criminal matters”. Her proposal indicates a lack of awareness of the separation of powers and the way courts function in our constitutional system. It can only be attributed to the sort of law-and-order promises that surface each time we have an election and which served the Liberal Party so poorly at the last election.
In 1995, the Kennett government established a permanent single Court of Appeal in Victoria. The court became the definitive body for hearing civil and criminal appeals from the Supreme Court Trial Division, where the cases are first heard, as well as specific matters from lower courts and tribunals.
In theory, the very best lawyers were to be appointed to the appeal court and initially, they were. There can be no difference between the ability of the best lawyers to deal with civil and criminal cases irrespective of their practising experience and all are equally capable of applying the law whether it be civil or criminal. Wilson’s promise to split the court into separate divisions makes no sense, especially since the president of the court allocates appeals to judges based on their expertise and interest.
Some of the best criminal appeal judges in recent years have been judges who have not practised in crime prior to their elevation but who have excelled in myriad other areas of legal practice.
If parliament is unhappy with the way criminal offenders are being sentenced, it is for parliament itself to act. Judges are trained to apply the law, not to make the law. Parliament has the sole power to legislate, and if dissatisfied with sentencing in a particular area it can introduce legislation or amend existing legislation to bring sentences into line with its collective wishes.
Parliament can, if it desires, legislate for mandatory minimum sentences that judges are obliged to impose, irrespective of their own personal views. The same directives can apply to magistrates who deal with serious criminal offences before they wind their way to higher courts as well as the less serious crimes.
Surely it is more effective for the Liberal Party to legislate to address its concerns rather than appoint allies and hope for the best. Once appointed, judges are unconstrained unless bound by statute.
The separation of powers, as adopted by Australia federally and by the states from the Westminster system of the United Kingdom, rigorously applies a separation between the legislature and executive arms of government on the one hand and the courts on the other; neither is to stray into the area of the other. Wilson’s promise to appoint “tough” judges betrays a complete lack of understanding of the constitutional system reminiscent of former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s response in 1988 when asked about the separation of powers: “What’s that?”
A more constructive measure that Wilson could take, if she were serious about improving the courts, would be to halt their politicisation by establishing a judicial appointments commission with eminent and experienced members to recommend appointments to judicial and quasi-judicial positions.
Further, there has been much criticism of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, which has turned out to be an entirely useless body. The late Stephen Charles, a former eminent member of the Court of Appeal, the one Wilson wants to abolish, exposed the deficiencies of the organisation over a long period, as have Robert Redlich, another former member of the Court of Appeal and himself a former chairman of IBAC, and Deborah Glass, a former ombudsman.
IBAC has limited power to investigate corruption, which one might have thought to be its raison d’etre and which distinguishes it from the Independent Commission Against Corruption of NSW, which has proved itself to be an effective organisation with a proven record of operating in the public interest.
Wilson’s proposal to reconstitute the Court of Appeal and appoint tough judges is ill-considered, ignorant and will achieve nothing to control crime in Victoria.
Gavin Silbert, KC, is a member of the Victorian Bar and a former chief crown prosecutor for Victoria.
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Gavin Silbert is a Queen's Counsel who has practised as a barrister for 40 years. He was Chief Crown Prosecutor for Victoria from 2008 to 2018.
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The rush to demonise all boys and men in the wake of scandals at the Sydney Swans and Scots College isn’t only insulting, it’s corrosive.
5 min read
August 28, 2026 - 11:30AM
Sweeping generalisations about young men and tarring them with the same brush as manosphere mysoginists the Tate brothers, left, risk overlooking the millions of solid, reliable fathers, partners, and mates across Australia. Pictures: AFP/iStock/Getty Images. Pictures: AFP/iStock
Last Friday night, I got briefly (and embarrassingly) lost on foot in Paddington. In my defence, it was dark and all the streets look the same to me still, even after nearly five years of living in Sydney.
I had been at a party, celebrating the 10th anniversary of my friend’s company. Worth celebrating in any economy, especially this one. In what was definitely a Sydney miracle, I’d found street parking quite close. Idiot-proof, or so I thought. I wandered around for a little bit, then stopped in the middle of the quiet road, perplexed and briefly displaced.
I heard a voice call out.
“Are you OK, do you need any help?”
Three men were standing under a street-light, chatting. They looked at me mildly amused.
“I can’t find my car,” I admitted sheepishly, walking towards them.
They offered to walk with me as I looked (as I said, it was pretty dark) and in the end it wasn’t needed, thanks to the genius of a remote key. They laughed good-naturedly. I thanked them. I went home.
To all of this, so what? It’s just good men, doing good things, as good men do.
But in the context of the past 10 days or so I felt like I needed to shout about it, herald the fact that not all men are latent predators cruising around with ill intent.
The tumultuous events engulfing the Sydney Swans and Sydney elite boys school Scots College, ushered in another episode of something I have watched on repeat during my 30 years in media and corporate life. It goes like this: there’s a high-profile scandal, and an almost immediate rush to make it about all men and all boys. It makes me deeply uncomfortable.
Psychological research shows that constantly framing young men as latent predators can create a damaging, self-fulfilling prophecy. Picture: David Crosling
Before I go further, the lunacy of this day and age demands that I state the obvious. Both of these situations are serious and demand serious responses.
In the case of the Swans, the club showed, by banning the five players involved, that salvaging its values is more important than winning a premiership. I point out also that there is an ongoing police investigation and none of these players has been charged with any criminal offence as at the time of writing. They are entitled, as we all are, to the presumption of innocence.
In the case of Scots College, three teenagers are charged with serious sexual assault crimes against a young girl. It is rarely more serious than this.
What I am saying here in no way diminishes the seriousness of either situation.
But (and stay with me here) surely, Australia, we can hold two competing and important matters in tension?
At its simplest, yes; these situations speak to cultural issues and those specific to the club, the code and the school in question. No, these situations do not point to the fact that all Australian men are predators in the making or fully formed as such.
I’m a woman and I find that notion insulting and simplistic.
Last weekend, as the fire continued to rage around these stories, NSW Premier Chris Minns announced he would convene an urgent roundtable to work out what could be done to stop teenage sex assaults.
Show me a politician who doesn’t love calling a roundtable. It sounds serious, in a Camelot kind of way, and looks as if they’re doing something, and it will inevitably produce nothing of substance. The idea that something so performative and cosmetic could be of use other than politically is just nonsense. They’re going to get together to brainstorm solutions. A brainstorm? Well, at ease, friends, all is well!
Politically driven roundtables and brainstorms risk delivering performative gestures rather than addressing root causes like unregulated online content. Picture: John Gass
Yes, I’m being facetious, but it deserves such a response. Access to online pornography; sexualised violence and behaviour against women; the role of artificial intelligence in generating some of this imagery: these are critical, important enemies to fight. And let me say the obvious part. These have become enemies because we as a society have allowed them to.
We have allowed the online world to be like an unregulated jungle. Often, parents are too scared to parent. We have refused to draw a line on sexualised content across numerous platforms. We have normalised it.
Then there’s this other part of the puzzle: constantly pushing a negative stereotype about young men and men in general feeds are the problem. Don’t believe me? Believe the science.
Psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson developed the concept of stereotype threat via their groundbreaking 1995 research conducted at Stanford University in California.
This research showed a measurable impact of negative stereotyping. In one study, hundreds of university students were asked if they were concerned about being seen negatively because of their ethnicities. It found that the more students expected to be or worried about being stereotyped, the likelier they were to miss classes, engage in verbal abuse or vandalise school property.
It’s science, but it’s not rocket science. Conditioning 101, words that become, across time, a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can go and read about it yourselves, there are countless examples.
The natural next questions are also simple. There are millions of great men and men in the making in this country. Why aren’t we talking about them? Why aren’t we amplifying their stories? Why aren’t we inviting them to lead conversations, creating spaces for their voices to be heard?
One friend, a mother of two young boys, put it this way: Every young boy knows what a bad man looks like, thanks to news headlines. Far fewer can describe a good one.
How sobering and concurrently unsurprising. We focus on the negative, that’s the nature of news. Talking about how most Australian men are solid, reliable, caring, trustworthy fathers, husbands, partners, grandfathers, mates and the like? Not chaotic enough for governments and the general media to care about.
NSW Premier Chris Minns announced an urgent roundtable on youth sexual violence following recent high-profile incidents. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard
Most teenage boys are pretty decent kids, doing their best to navigate a complicated world, one that is too quick to tell them they are probably a predator and inherently bad.
I cheered when I read comments by NSW federal Labor MP Dan Repacholi: “The answer isn’t telling young boys they are the problem. If that’s all they hear from us, they’ll switch off.” True. And, as science has proved, they will unconsciously start to mirror that stereotyping with their behaviour.
I hate the rush to demonise men. I hate how, often, it’s led by women. I hate the stereotyping of men as predators in the making as vehemently I as I loathe the stereotyping of women like me, without children, as cold-hearted, career-focused bitches. All of it is wrong.
But in the here and now it’s the broken record of “all men are bad” that must stop. I think of my brother and my uncles and my nephew and my cousins and my mates, who are all bloody fantastic men. They’re imperfectly wonderful fathers, partners, friends, sons and more. This is the truth you can’t change my mind about, and I know most Australians are with me here.
Some of you will be cross at me for saying these things, for pointing out that there is a rush to vilify men and boys that doesn’t seem to apply anywhere else. I can live with that. Saying these things in no way diminishes the seriousness of some of these challenges I have acknowledged, that have arisen these past few weeks. It simply provides an important counterargument and suggested solution: let’s talk about all good men, like my knights in weekend casual from last Friday night.
Good men, and not just a few of them either. If you open your eyes, you’ll see they’re everywhere.
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