The Liberal Party in Victoria has form when it comes to its own ministers, politicians and candidates undermining the authority and independence of the Judiciary.

Unelected Victorian Liberal Party Premier Denis Napthine is a case in point and we have highlighted his illegitimate behaviour in relation to Julian Knight’s indefinite detention elsewhere on this website.

From May 2o14, following the Victorian Government’s denial of then criminal prisoner Julian Knight’s due Judicial parole date from May 2014, and the politicians enacting its unprecedented ‘ad hominem‘ Parliamentary Act intentionally targeting one person Julian Knight to impose indefinite detention (incarceration) and so over-ruling the Judiciary.  Henceforth, Mr Knight has become the political prisoner of what were at the time unelected Victorian politicians.

Napthine usurped the Judiciary’s law and so in flagrant breach of the Australian Constitution’s inherited Westminster System governance principle of the ‘Separation of Powers‘ between the Judiciary, Executive and Legislature…

Read More:

Denis Napthine Hate Law 2013

Julian Knight’s subsequent legal appeal battle (hardly vexatious) against prison department branded ‘Corrections Victoria’ to deny him downgraded status from ‘Maximum Security’ to ‘Medium Security’ rating , the Supreme Court of Victoria finally ruled in Mr Knight’s favour to have his security risk rating downgraded.

More recently dated Wednesday, 8th October 2025, we note the very ‘Victorian’ Liberal Party’s website bragging its oppositional campaign about “Labor (state government’s) Crime Crisis”.   We reproduce the relevant propaganda article by a Liberal communications (aka propagandist) staffer as follows with images of its custodial ‘authors’, with our factual corrections following below the article:

‘Labor’s crime crisis sees mass murderer downgraded amid jail closures’

SOURCE:  https://vic.liberal.org.au/news/2025-10-08-labors-crime-crisis-sees-mass-murderer-downgraded-amid-jail-closures  [Accessed 10th November 2025]

by ‘custodial authors’ Victorian Liberal politicians Brad Battin and David Southwick, who’ve put their names to that article:

Brad and Dave’s joint article of 8th October 2025 reads:

<<  (Victoria Premier effective since 27th September 2023) Jacinta Allan’s soft on crime approach has now resulted in Hoddle Street mass killer Julian Knight being moved from maximum to medium security because of Labor’s prison closures.

Labor has reduced Victoria’s prison capacity by 1,376 beds, nearly one-fifth of the state’s total capacity, since 2023, with Dhurringile Prison (214 beds) and Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre (75 beds) closed and the closure of Port Phillip Prison (1,087 beds) imminent.

Knight killed seven people and injured 19 with a military grade semi-automatic rifle in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, in 1987. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

His new home at Castlemaine’s Loddon Prison is described by Corrections Victoria a “campus-style prison” with “an environment which as closely as possible resembles those available in the general community”.

Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin said: “Labor has shut down more than 1,300 prison beds and now they’re downgrading a mass murderer to make space. It’s an absolute disgrace.

“Julian Knight should never leave maximum security. Every Victorian would expect someone responsible for one of the worst massacres in our history to remain behind the highest possible security walls for life.  The Premier must explain why the worst of the worst are being given softer treatment instead of keeping our community safe.”

Shadow Minister for Corrections David Southwick said:

“The Government has been warned not to close Port Phillip Prison in the middle of a crime crisis, which is forcing police to house remand prisoners in regional cells and leading to violent offenders being reclassified to lower security. While police cells are overflowing and violent criminals are being downgraded, Labor is closing prisons and pretending there isn’t a crisis.  Labor has the wrong priorities and because of their economic waste, Victorians are paying $1.2 million in interest on Government debt every single hour instead of investing in keeping the community safe.”  >>

The Knighthood’s critiques of the above article:

<<  Jacinta Allan’s soft on crime approach has now resulted in Hoddle Street mass killer Julian Knight being moved from maximum to medium security because of Labor’s prison closures.  >>

Our Comments:

• • • The above statement is incorrect in many ways.
    • Fact check:  Julian Knight some months prior to being transferred from Port Phillip Prison to Loddon Prison obtained legal clearance from the Supreme Court of Victoria to be downgraded by Corrections Victoria from ‘maximum security’ rating to medium security rating.  The downgrade had nothing to do with the closure of Port Phillip Prison.  Despite his legal downgrade, Julian remained incarcerated in Port Phillip Prison for many months afterwards.
    • Fact check:   The Allen Victorian Labor Government on 24th June 2024 publicly announced its was closing privately run prisons across the state, including Port Phillip Prison (at Truganina) and Dhurringile Prison (12 km north of Murchison).
    • The justification for the Victorian Labor Government closing private prisons to move towards a state-run, public system, arguing this will lead to better oversight, a focus on rehabilitation rather than profit, and improved safety for both staff and prisoners.  Key reasons include concerns about the safety and performance of private facilities, as highlighted by investigations into mistreatment and use of force, and a desire to redirect resources from profit-driven models to a system with better staff training and a focus on rehabilitation.
    • The private prison implementation had been implemented by the Kennett Victorian Liberal Government (1992-1996).  Over the 32 years from implementation to announced closure, the private prison model has failed in may respects, particularly its inmates according to the aforementioned investigations and on cost-benefit performance bases.
    • The above statement is a politically charged baseless attempt to link Julian Knight to Victoria’s private prison system closures.  The Victorian Labor Government had no say in Julian’s security downgrade.  The three matters are completely unrelated, and so this is Victorian Liberal baseless propaganda.  Victorian Liberal’s have form persecuting Julian Knight at every opportunity.   They have informants inside the prison system including Port Phillip Prison and likely Loddon Prison to feed on any morsel of gossip about Julian – yet, the Liberals in their desperation need look no further than his website here: https://julianknight.com.au/

<< Labor has reduced Victoria’s prison capacity by 1,376 beds, nearly one-fifth of the state’s total capacity, since 2023, with Dhurringile Prison (214 beds) and Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre (75 beds) closed and the closure of Port Phillip Prison (1,087 beds) imminent.   >>

Our Comments:

• • • Heads-up for the ignorant – prisons don’t just have “beds”, moreso ‘cells’ with real human inmates and those inmates come and go over time.  So we’re not talking about the Hospitality Industry and measuring occupancy rates
    • Fact Check:  Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre was not a prison
    • Fact Check:  Dhurringile Prison closed in 2007, so more irrelevant information, from who knows where?   Plus, Dhurringile was a Victorian Government run prison, never private.    Why does the Victorian Liberals propaganda dude/chick not include mention here of say Alcatraz federal prison to the spiel?
    • The above five unreferenced statistics are unreferenced.  Should we check by researching ourselves?   No.  Why bother?  This is not a court case, so such specific numbers are not pertinent, just grand standing attempts to try to elaborate fabricated fault.  Prisons typically hold lots of inmates, so the specific numbers if they are correct or not matter not.   It’s not in the tens of thousands.  There is no offered comparative numbers from the time of the Liberals, if that is the motive?  Nor is there any survey of the proportion of the population of Victoria being held in its prisons, private or government run; so its lies, damn lies and statistics for a political oppositional agenda to undermine the incumbent government
    • Fact Check:  Victoria’s privately run prisons are:
      1. Port Phillip Correctional Centre, managed by G4S;
      2. Fulham Correctional Centre, managed by GEO; and
      3. Ravenhall Correctional Centre, managed by GEO.
    • The above statement make no mention of Fulham or Ravenhall, so the real ‘communications’ author here needs to get out more.
    • These two pollies Battin and Southwick offer no alternate solution, hence why they remain in unelected opposition wilderness since elected Ted Baillieu resigned on 6th March 2013.  The Victorian Liberals have been unelected for the past 12 years and counting; this despite Labor bankrupting the state under Premier Daniel Andrews for three consecutive terms over 9 years.

<<  Knight killed seven people and injured 19 with a military grade semi-automatic rifle in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, in 1987. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.   >>

Our Comments:

• • • Such is old factual news well documented. Seven killed and 19 injured is a shooting spree.  It is not mass murder, such as the German NAZI Holocaust of 6 million Jews during WWII, and The Armenian massacres (Hamidian massacres) in the mid-1890s by the then Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) estimated  to slaughter 300,000, and the Nanjing Massacre of 200,000 Chinese by the Japanese invading army (1937-38).
    • Is this more hateful persecution by Julian by the Vic Libs?  Julian Knight’s criminal history is irrelevant.
    • The Victorian Liberal in 2013 converted Julian to being a political prisoner under their default unelected Denis Napthine, remember?
    • Does Southwick compare and engage about Palestine and Israel’s genocide of the former invaded nation given his publicised Jewish ancestry and likely connections in Jewish dominated Caulfield?   This is the proverbial pot calling the kettle black of what, David?

<<  His new home at Castlemaine’s Loddon Prison is described by Corrections Victoria a “campus-style prison” with “an environment which as closely as possible resembles those available in the general community”.  >>

Our Comments:

• • • The above is an incorrect and misleading statement in a number of ways
    • A prison can never be aligned with the term “home”, so again this is more biased propaganda
    • Fact Check:  Castlemaine’s Loddon Prison, in which Julian Knight is currently incarcerated, is not a “campus-style prison”.  Rather it is medium security containing individual cells.  Whereas adjacent Middleton Prison is a minimum security prison moreso.  The Victorian Liberals have their facts wrong.

<< Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin said: “Labor has shut down more than 1,300 prison beds and now they’re downgrading a mass murderer to make space.   It’s an absolute disgrace.  >>

Our Comments:

• • • No, this is a factually incorrect statement.
    • The Allan Victorian Labor Government has implemented its policy of transferring inmates in privately run prisons to its government run prisons.  This includes the recent opening of Western Plains Correctional Centre at Lara near Geelong with a 1248-cell capacity: https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/contact-or-visit-a-prison/prisons-in-victoria/western-plains-correctional-centre
    • Again, Allan Victorian Labor Government had no role in downgrading Julian Knight’s security rating.  This is more misleading propaganda in this politically biased and hateful press release from the Victorian Liberals

<<  “Julian Knight should never leave maximum security. Every Victorian would expect someone responsible for one of the worst massacres in our history to remain behind the highest possible security walls for life.  >>

Our Comments:

• • • The Liberal Party have their Victoria Era views such as mandatory hanging, yet they are cowards by ignoring RMC Duntroon’s institutions bastardisation regime that drove Officer Cadet Julian Knight to a temporary psychotic state
    • Julian Knight has already been downgraded from maximum security rating to medium security rating by the Judiciary. Victorian Liberal politicians can’t help themselves when it comes to over-ruling the Judiciary, as with their former unelected Premier Denis Napthine
    • Julian Knight did not commit “one of the worst massacres in our history”  He shot and killed seven seven people and injured 19 others, yes.   david you should be well aware that as of 22 October 2025, over 71,200 people (69,236 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis) have been reported killed in the Gaza War [SOURCE:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Gaza_war]  Such would indeed constitute a ‘massacre’.   Liberal truth of convenience?

<<  The Premier must explain why the worst of the worst are being given softer treatment instead of keeping our community safe.  >>

Our Comments:

• • • Again, this is just more misleading propaganda lies by the Victorian (era) Libs
    • The legal decision made by the Supreme Court of Victoria to downgrade Julian Knight’s risk rating from maximum security to minimum security has  zero to do with Victorian Labor’s Premier Jacinta Allan
    • If political coward politicians Brad Battin and David Southwick and their Victorian Liberal Party have an issue with the judicial decision then they ought  properly bring on a legal appeal in the Supreme Court rather than playing their political games.

<< Shadow Minister for Corrections David Southwick said:  “The Government has been warned not to close Port Phillip Prison in the middle of a crime crisis, which is forcing police to house remand prisoners in regional cells and leading to violent offenders being reclassified to lower security.  While police cells are overflowing and violent criminals are being downgraded, Labor is closing prisons and pretending there isn’t a crisis.   Labor has the wrong priorities and because of their economic waste, Victorians are paying $1.2 million in interest on Government debt every single hour instead of investing in keeping the community safe.”  >>

Our Comments:

• • • Is David not casting the first stone?   Did not the Victorian Liberal under Kennett do so, else why the need to close Kennett’s private prison model?
    • Labor’s economic waste and ongoing cost to Victorian taxpayers is true but unrelated matter like the price of fish
    • How do the Victorian Liberals intend keeping the Victorian community safe?   Deafening silence.