Police Minister Lisa Neville has hit back at Malcolm Turnbull over his comments earlier today, where the he labelled the youth gang crime problem in Victoria as a weakness of Daniel Andrews.

The PM said his government was “very concerned” at the growing crime in Melbourne.

“We are very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria, in particular in Melbourne,” Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday.

“This is a failure of the Andrews Labor government.”

Ms Neville said it was disheartening to see a serious issue being treated as a political football.

“He’s misled people in the comments he’s made,” Ms Neville said.

“He’s denigrated the work of Victoria Police members.”

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The Minister said we shouldn’t focus on the language surrounding youth gangs.

“I want to call them criminal thugs because that’s what they are

“I think we can get caught up in the language, I don’t want that to distract and give notoriety to this group.”