LNP's youth crime plan criticised as 'backward thinking'

The state opposition's plan to overhaul the Queensland youth justice system has been hammered by a leading Brisbane youth advocate.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington vowed to introduce laws to recognise prior offending in the courts, so a child's record stays with them if they reoffend as an adult, if the LNP is elected at the October state poll.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington plans to introduce a three-strikes policy to combat youth crime.Credit: Chris Hyde

As premier, Ms Frecklington would assign the youth justice system to monitor offenders 24/7 to ease the burden on police, and force courts to sentence a young person to detention for a third conviction.

The LNP also plans to scrap youth bail houses and trial five community payback farms to focus on young offenders learning new skills, improving self-discipline and taking ownership of their actions.

“Young thugs committing violent crime, car theft and drug use won’t be the norm under the LNP – it will be stamped out," Ms Frecklington said.

“The LNP will make sweeping changes to prevent youth crime, crack down on perpetrators and rehabilitate offenders to contribute to the community."

The proposal includes diverting funds to communities that have a high number of offenders to reduce youth crime, with Cairns and Townsville flagged as examples.

Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Janet Wight said the LNP's proposal was an "odd combination" of policies and largely "backward thinking".

"I'm disappointed that we can’t have an [upcoming state] election without having a youth justice debate - why it is always youth justice and youth crime, I don’t know," she said.

"Youth crime overall is decreasing and has been for many years, I don’t know where this evidence of skyrocketing youth crime is.

"According to the Department of Youth Justice website, 20- to 29-year-olds were the largest proportion of offenders from 2008 to 2018. Children are down the list in third or fourth.

"[That] certainly doesn’t indicate things are out of control [in the youth justice system] and we’re not experiencing a huge spike here, either."

However, Ms Wight was pleased to see the LNP focusing on justice reinvestment trials.

"That is what it's about - putting resources into preventing people coming into this space and instead, getting their lives back on track, that is the way we should be going," she said.

"The rest of the proposal is a punitive response, an odd combination and quite backward thinking.

"I'm concerned the community farm program is another version of the boot camps that didn't work last time because one size does not fit all - every young person is different.

"They [young offenders] may well learn a range of life skills in this program, but how do they use them to, for example, get out of the area their family lives in, where drugs are around?

"The mandatory detention for a third conviction is just not acceptable, it always has the potential to be arbitrary and unjust.

"We see in Western Australia young people are locked up for very minor things simply because it is their third offence."

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said her government's $500 million investment showed she understood just how serious the youth crime issue was.

"We’re building a new youth detention centre, we have 24-hour strike teams with youth justice workers and police going out on patrols together, and it is a very complex issue," she said.

"The best way to stop a young person from offending is to get them skills and get them into a job, that is how you break the cycle.

"[The LNP proposal] seems to be straight out of [former Queensland premier] Campbell Newman’s playbook.

"In relation to these farms they want to send young people to - the LNP previously had a policy they called boot camps, the auditor-general gave a scathing report of how ineffective those were."