Youth Justice Task-force gives Cairns crime update
A total of 8000 engine immobiliser vouchers worth $500 each will soon be available to Cairns motorists. Details of the $10m initiative and how to sign up to the trial revealed here.
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A high-level youth justice delegation visiting Cairns has provided updates on when motorists will get subsidised engine immobilisers, resi care reform and detailed work to lock in a new youth jail slated for the Far North.
Back in Cairns on Wednesday after visiting in February to kick start the new Youth Justice Task-force, acting assistant Commissioner George Marchesini was joined by Youth Justice deputy director general Bernadette Harvey and Cairns-based officer acting superintendent Kev Goan.
Last week 70 offenders were arrested on 95 property-related charges and of those 32 were adults and 38 juvenile.
Act supt Goan said the mentoring program Project Booyah will be extended to at-risk youth living in the Mareeba area and the diversionary work of the recently funded Fire Project would be evaluated and if successful could be continued on a local level.
“That local input from service providers working out what is the best fit for the district and with some seed funding (they can) to go out and test their theories and operations and then (we can) look to evaluate that for more substantial funding,” he said.
Quizzed about a new youth jail rumoured to be co-located at the site of the existing Lotus Glen Correctional facility near Mareeba, Ms Harvey said a formal announcement from the government was imminent.
“The department and working through those options, the viability, the suitability of those locations,” she said.
“The advantages of having it in and around Cairns is that it does allow for young people to engage with their families to engage with their local community … which is some of the challenges we have in having the detention centre in Townsville.”
Following calls for a review into the highly criticised residential care system Ms Harvey appeared to lend in-principal support for shake-up of resi care, also hinted at by Child Safety Minister Craig Crawford this week.
“What we do know is there is a percentage of young people that are offending that are in residential care,” she said.
“I think there is general concern around our capacity as a state to deliver residential care.
“So I think anything that looks at sort of how we manage young people and care for young people in those facilities and what that means for the future as a part of good government and continuing to review programs.”
In terms of the highly-anticipated engine immobiliser trial aimed at curbing car theft rates in Townsville, Mount Isa and Cairns, on Monday auto industry installers were invited to express an interest in taking part in the $10m trial.
Eligible residents in Cairns can apply for a subsidy voucher up to $500 from early August from a dedicated online portal and will then be able to redeem the subsidy from an approved installer.
It’s expected the $500 subsidy voucher will cover the entire cost of the some of the new technology (or secondary) immobiliser technologies available, meaning that participants in the trial will cop no out of pocket expenses.
A total of 9,000 subsidy vouchers will be available to residents in Townsville, 8,000 in Cairns, and 900 vouchers in Mount Isa.
Acting Asst Comm Marchesini said the success of the trial would determine if the program would be extended to other car theft hot spots.
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