Sudanese youth gangs are robbing people at train stations while "Africans" are assaulting people with crowbars in their homes, a federal Liberal MP has told parliament.
Jason Wood weighed into the debate on Victorian youth crime on Wednesday night with claims more violent crimes are being committed by Sudanese youths.
He says it's sad that the state Labor government is continuing its refusal to acknowledge any problems with Sudanese gangs.
"We've again had issues where Africans have broken into people's houses during home invasions, assaulted them with crowbars and baseball bats," Mr Wood said on Wednesday night.
He said early intervention was needed to stop young people losing hope and getting involved in crime.
"The only way you're going to address this issue is to admit there's an issue in the first place," he said.
His colleague Kevin Andrews said the "scourge of gangs" was a problem and there's a fear of violence in the community at a level that it hasn't existed before.
"The policy of softly softly policing, which has been in place in Victoria for over a decade, now has not worked," he said.
"A zero tolerance approach to the aggravated activities of the gangs is needed."
Earlier this month hundreds of protesters marched in Melbourne in support of the African community, railing against political commentary and media coverage around a series of home invasions, armed robberies and assaults linked to people of African appearance.
In January Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said people were "scared to go to out to restaurants" because of African street gang violence.
The Victorian government has fended off criticism of its handling of youth crime while state MP for Werribee, in Melbourne's west, said Mr Dutton had gone too far to make a political point.
