Mr Clark has foreshadowed legislation allowing the information to be revealed if the Coalition government is re-elected later this month.

He said existing restrictions on the publication of youth offending are designed to allow young people the opportunity to turn away from crime without having their criminal history on the public record for the rest of their lives.

“However, if a person goes on to commit a further serious crime as an adult, they have shown they have forfeited the opportunity they were given, and the community is entitled to know the full picture of their record,” Mr Clark said.

“Adults who commit serious crimes should no longer be entitled to have their past crimes hidden from the public.”

The proposal will still restrict the media from publishing details of children’s court matters.

There are notices adjacent to courtrooms throughout Victoria which advise that no reference can be made to the particular venue of a children’s court.

It prevents the reporting of all juvenile matters, a provision which member for Benambra Bill Tilley believes is “too limiting”.

And it creates another border anomaly with children’s court matters in NSW able to be reported provided there is nothing published which would tend to identify the young person involved.

Mr Tilley, a former police officer, believes the media should be able to report children’s court matters in Victoria along similar lines to the restrictions that apply in NSW.

Mr Clark has released a draft of the legislation for public scrutiny and submissions in coming weeks.

It proposes the new law will apply where a person’s crime as a youth was a serious offence that resulted in detention, and then are jailed as an adult for a serious matter.

Serious offences include crimes such as murder and other homicides, sexual offences, armed robbery, aggravated burglary and assaults causing serious injury.

Submissions are being sought by December 5.