North Qld mayors urge holistic approach to youth crime

Nick Gibbs | March 1, 2023

Harsher penalties for children who repeatedly commit crimes have some support in Queensland’s far north, but local mayors want to know what’s being done to support kids in clear need of help. 

Children walk the streets of Mareeba, west of Cairns late at night because they don’t feel safe at home and there is nowhere else to go, a parliamentary committee has been told.

Night programs at the local PCYC generally only run until 8.30pm, Mareeba Shire Council Mayor Angela Toppin told the hearing in Cairns on Wednesday.

“A lot of our youths are out on the street late at night beyond that time,” she said.

A drop-in centre was needed in her area where at-risk children could find “safety, support, a bed and a meal”, she said. 

“Some of our young people, eight, nine, 10-year-olds, are out in the street late at night because the level of domestic violence in their homes is such that they are unsafe,” she said.

“That is one of the main reasons why these young people get caught up in that net.”

The legislation would make breaching a bail condition an offence for children and see increased jail time for certain offences, including up to 14 years for car theft in aggravated circumstances. 

The state government plans to override its own Human Rights Act to pass the bill in a move that’s been widely criticised by law, advocacy and human rights groups.

Much of the criticism centres on potentially making the youth crime problem worse, with evidence cited by the state’s human rights commissioner suggesting the pre-trial detention of children triples their chance of reoffending.

But Ms Toppin said harsher penalties are needed for young people who continue to break the law. 

“I will be the very first to say to you that we need to look at diversion at the early start of the youth crime, but if they continue along this path … then there needs to be something stronger to deter that,” she said.

Cairns barrister Timothy Grau, who works mainly in criminal justice, told committee members that continuing with the government’s approach was “insane”. 

“Overwhelmingly, the research has consistently said what we’ve been doing, and what this bill proposes, does not and will not work,” he said.

“Young people end up in the criminal justice system because, for many from birth and … from an early childhood have faced the most deprived, dysfunctional (and) disadvantaged life than almost anybody in this state and country.”

It costs about $500,000 a year to house a young person in detention, Mr Grau said.

“That money, in my submission, will be much better spent on programs directed at those children rather than incarcerating them.”

Cairns Mayor Bob Manning was supportive of the bill’s community safety objectives, but questioned why nothing seemed to be getting done about the causes of offending.

“We do all these reports on why a small minority of young people are causing problems and reoffending, yet we don’t seem to be doing much about the potential root cause,” he said.

“What is the government’s collective plan to significantly reduce the incidents of youth crime in the first place?”