Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (12.31 pm): I rise to speak on the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. The youth justice system is broken. The government has been tinkering with it and continues to tinker with it. Tinkering around the edges will not fix it. It is an indictment on this government that we have yet another bill trying to fix our broken youth justice system.
This government has continually scrapped several measures that the LNP introduced to keep the community safe. Scrapping the measures has had a cumulative effect which has resulted in little deterrence. It has resulted in police being hamstrung in their efforts to combat crime. It has resulted in growing community outrage about an ongoing wave of juvenile crime. This bill is the government’s latest reaction to community outrage. It is supposed to demonstrate a tougher approach to recidivist juvenile crime.
The explanatory notes outline a number of policy objectives regarding strengthening the justice bail framework; codifying the sentencing principle, including a reference to protecting the community from recidivist youth offenders in the charter of youth justice principles; providing a trial of powers for police to stop a person and use a handheld scanner to scan for knives in safe night precincts; and enhancing measures against dangerous hooning.
The explanatory notes state that the bill will strengthen the youth justice bail framework through: trialling electronic monitoring devices as a condition of bail for some 16- and 17 year-old offenders, to be reviewed after 12 months; permitting the court or police, when determining bail, to consider whether a parent or guardian is willing to support the offenders to comply with the bail conditions and meet bail conditions; requiring certain young offenders charged with ‘prescribed indictable offences’ to ‘show cause’ why bail should be granted; and clarifying that, although a lack of accommodation and/or family support is a consideration in granting bail, it cannot be the sole reason for keeping a child in custody.
This government has a legacy of double standards on youth justice. It has a legacy of cynical media spin. It has an appalling record of kneejerk responses because in its heart it really does not want to deal with youth crime. The statistics—those that are not massaged—tell the truth about Labor’s incompetence and reluctance to dealing with youth justice. Anecdotal evidence from cities and regions tells the truth. Survey after survey across the state tell the truth.
The litany of Labor’s so-called action plans, reviews and amendments to legislation show that Labor does not know how to deal with crime. In the last five years it has scrapped the LNP’s breach of bail offence; made childhood findings of guilt inadmissible when sentencing for an adult offence; made detention a last resort for sentencing a child, and when that does occur it is to be for the shortest period; and made sentencing a last resort and preference given to allow the offender to stay in the community.
Labor has a legacy of rushed policy of transitioning 17-year-olds from adult prisons to youth detention centres. There was no forward planning. Youth detention centres became overcrowded so Labor simply remanded children in watch houses. It has a legacy of a failed action plan in 2016, another in 2019 and last year it announced yet another one.
When it weakened bail laws two years ago the LNP warned that it ‘will result in more youths who commit serious offences that put the community safety at risk being released on bail’. The government has rejected attempts by the LNP to strengthen laws to provide security and safety for our communities. It has refused to accept the reality of youth crime and the public’s concerns.
In a survey of my own electorate last year, crime and sentencing topped the list of issues worrying local Gympie residents. Almost 1,500 residents, or 6.6 per cent of households, responded to my survey. Out of a possible 36 responses, they identified penalties for criminal offenders and law and order issues among their top 10 concerns. The top four priorities were tougher measures to deal with dangerous offenders, 95 per cent; offences against children, 94.3 per cent; domestic violence, 91.3 per cent; and juvenile offenders, 88.65 per cent.
Law and order also came under the spotlight, with 84.5 per cent concerned about illegal drug use in the region, and 78.6 per cent did not think current sentencing of criminal offenders reflected community standards. People are clearly frustrated with extremists being let off with their criminal behaviour—84.5 per cent of respondents wanted to give the police more powers to protect farmers from extreme animal activists and 79.86 per cent believe penalties against illegal trespass on properties was inadequate.
This bill focuses more specifically on youth offenders because of a growing perception that current policies are contributing to lawlessness. It is contributing to lawlessness that is breaking out in certain locations and threatening public safety. Labor has been forced into this legislation to get out of a political problem and growing backlash. This legislation is a kneejerk response to that outrage because it is in Labor’s DNA to go soft on crime.
A look at some headlines in the 18 months before the last election were supposed to demonstrate a tough approach. They were: ‘Amendments to help young people stay out of detention’, ‘Hardline on Youth Crime’, ‘Youth crime Queensland: Police Minister Mark Ryan doubles down on claims courts not locking kids up properly’, and ‘New bail laws to target repeat youth offenders’. It was nothing more than media spin.
The reality is that, if it had dealt with the issues, we would not have seen a media release from the Premier in February promising ‘Tough new action to target repeat offenders’. That headline was in direct response to the tragic death of a couple on Australia Day, two weeks earlier—a couple hit by a stolen car driven by a 17-year-old driver under the influence of drugs and on bail. That headline was because of a juvenile crime wave in Townsville.
Mr BROWN: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to a point of order on sub judice. I think we have to be very careful about matters that are before the courts right now.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Gerber): Member for Gympie, I ask that you observe the sub judice rule and, if a matter is before the court, to be careful in relation to your description of the facts of that matter.
Mr PERRETT: Thank you for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. As I said, the statistics about reoffending, whether in youth bail houses, while on bail or restorative justice, are confronting. There were 5,648 offences committed by 210 young people post bail house. That is in the three years the bail houses were in operation. One child committed 255 offences. So 210, or 85 per cent of the 255 residing in a bail house, reoffended. Labor’s solution was to scrap bail houses. It refused to admit that the scrapping was because of the high rates of reoffending.
Of those who were on bail in the two years from December 2018 to December last year, 3,744 reoffended, 179 committed more than 30 new offences and 944 committed between 10 and 30 new offences. There were 1,518 young people who participated in restorative justice conferences in 2018-19—38 per cent of them were charged with an offence in the six months after their earliest conference date. Of these, 353 have been charged with three or more offences. That is all under Labor’s watch. Most confronting for all of us is that under this government a total of 9,885 proven offences were committed by children aged 10 to 13 between 2018-19 and 2019-20. The offences were committed by young children who are only becoming teenagers.
The problem is Labor’s failure to maintain a consistent policy line. It has resulted in a scattergun approach. Labor’s quick fixes will not combat lawlessness. On their own these proposals will not result in any significant changes in behaviour by that small number of juvenile recidivists who appear to be at the centre of the current outbreak of lawlessness. This bill will not meet community expectations and I urge the government to support the LNP amendments.