Katter’s Australian Party ready for tough youth crime laws
The Katter’s Australian Party is not taking its foot off the gas with the minor political party saying it has been given a stronger mandate to tackle the scourge of youth crime.
Townsville
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The Katters are not taking its foot off the gas, with the minor political party saying it has been given a stronger mandate to tackle the scourge of youth crime.
Katter’s Australian Party deputy leader Nick Dametto, speaking in Townsville after what he described as a “savage campaign”, said Stephen Andrew was ahead in Mirani with Steven Lesina in the hunt in Mulgrave.
“It will be fantastic to walk into parliament with five members of parliament this time instead of where we started the last time with three.”
The Hinchinbrook MP said high on the KAP agenda was reintroducing its Castle Law “to give homeowners the legislative rights to protect themselves with whatever force is necessary in their own premises during a home invasion or a robbery”.
He said there was no chance to debate the legislation when it was first introduced before the elections.
“In the short five weeks that we ran the Queensland parliamentary petition, we had more than 40,000 people sign calling for KAP’s version of Castle Law to be introduced in the state.”
Mr Dametto rejected claims the legislation would alter the Queensland Weapons Act, which did not permit use of a firearm for self-defence purposes.
Mr Dametto said that in addition to Castle Law, KAP would continue to seek a strong relocation-sentencing policy to send young youth offenders bush “to rehabilitate as well as put distance between them and their victims while they are incarcerated”.
“That must be coupled with minimum-mandatory sentencing for prescribed crimes, so we want to make sure those kids that are stealing motor vehicles, breaking into people’s houses are doing at least six to 12 months,” he said.
“We also want to make sure that youth offenders out there on our youth relocation sentencing detention site are actually being rehabilitated before they are reintroduced back into society.
“There is no use … letting children out of incarceration if they’re not ready to plug back into school, traineeships or work.”
Mr Dametto said they had spent five years calling for the removal of detention as a last resort.
“It’s something that the LNP has adopted and we want to make sure that is implemented properly,” he said.
“We had the election last Saturday night, and car thieves were still running around town across Townsville and in the greater North Queensland region.”
He said youth offenders did not care less about who was in government, but would care about tough punishment.
“We need to have laws that correct the rudder of these youth offenders right now, and if they are strong enough, we can send a shockwave through these youth-offending cohorts to make them second guess when it comes to committing a crime.”
Mr Dametto said the LNP had promised to start pushing legislation through before Christmas.
“Let’s make sure it’s got enough teeth to keep those kids off the street.”
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Originally published as Katter’s Australian Party ready for tough youth crime laws
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