Youth crime has always been a popular axe to grind.
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We regularly hear of people bemoaning how the "youth of today" are out of control.
There'll be the reports about how gangs, albeit in the big smoke, are holding sway or how individual teens are the hidden faces behind a rise in crime.
The Liberals failed badly in an attempt a few years back to try to win votes in Victoria through its entirely misleading dog-whistling on supposed African teenage crime gangs running amok.
The fact is that the convenient pinpointing of young people as being at the heart of the ills besetting a community is a well-worn hobby horse.
But that is not to in any way negate the clear, significant challenges being faced by law enforcement and the wider justice system.
Indeed, just this past week it was revealed that the rate of youth crime in Victoria reached its highest level in a decade in 2023.
Victoria Police figures told of how those aged 14 to 17 were responsible for 18,729 crimes in 2023, the highest since 2009.
The Border region is not immune to the issues and impact of ongoing, often recidivist offending among minors, with considerable efforts going on behind-the-scenes in trying to address the underlying causes.
While any number of agencies and individuals - from police to teachers to NSW Youth Justice workers to health workers - deal with that acute, crisis work on a daily basis, year in-year out, there also needs to be a considerable focus made on how we have reached that point in the first place.
Illicit drug and alcohol addiction, sexual and physical abuse, family breakdowns, disadvantage - it's an exceedingly complicated issue that harbours and fosters the kind of inequity that serves as an incubator for those youth crime statistics.
That complexity means there is no one answer, no silver bullet as such, for why youth crime doesn't go away to any great extent, but that also highlights the importance of never giving up on creating solutions.
To that end, a NSW government decision to backtrack on its previous opposition to the idea of a parliamentary investigation into youth crime and policing in regional areas is so welcomed.
And why, as Albury MP Justin Clancy has demanded, that this area be consulted.
