Qld’s latest ‘knee-jerk’ youth justice response overtakes expired ‘action plan’

The Queensland government has rolled out two high-profile rounds of tweaks to its youth justice system in almost as many years, against the direction set by an expired plan and sparking concerns by stakeholders that the government is focusing on politics over evidence.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said on Friday that while the latest reforms had been in the works for months, the government saw an “opportunity” to announce them this week after the alleged home invasion murder of North Lakes mother Emma Lovell.

The issue of youth crime routinely arises as a political fight in Queensland, with critics accusing both major parties of a “law and order auction” with community fears.Credit: Warren Hackshall

The package included changes to court operations, tougher sentencing options, and a second new youth prison. But when questioned, Miles reiterated this was on top of other preventative work the government was doing in Queensland, which has more children and teens behind bars than any other state.

However, none of the measures announced this week or in 2020 after the deaths of Matt Field, Kate Leadbetter and their unborn son, Miles, feature in the government’s Youth Justice Action Plan 2019-21, which laid out how it would enact its youth justice strategy but is now a year out of date.

Sent a series of questions by Brisbane Times, Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard’s office confirmed only that an updated plan would be “published soon”.

This was the same response given in September when questioned about the delayed release of former police commissioner Bob Atkinson’s review of the 2020 changes, which led to more children and teens being held in custody for longer.

Under the expired action plan, work was expected to “remove legislative barriers” driving some bail refusals or long periods of remand – one of several factors driving continued opposition accusations that the government was watering down laws.

“I think both of those responses to horrific events are political reactions, and they are inconsistent with the youth justice plan,” Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes told Brisbane Times.

Hayes said while outrage over such horrific incidents was valid and community safety needed to be considered for serious violent crimes, the government’s responses were not based on evidence that showed young offenders placed in detention were more likely to reoffend compared to those involved in cheaper community-based efforts to help keep them out of the justice system.

“We’ve got to work out how do we stop this happening again, and that has to be by using diversionary and interventionist strategies and looking at the evidence to work out what works. And none of that [government response] is based on evidence,” she said.

Aysha Kerr, the Justice Reform Initiative’s Queensland advocacy and campaign co-ordinator, said none of the “knee-jerk” changes aligned with the approach called for in the extensive 2018 report by former police commissioner Bob Atkinson.

This focus on early intervention, keeping children out of court and custody, and reducing reoffending was accepted by the government and later set out in the expired action plan and the overarching Youth Justice Strategy 2019-2023.

And despite a commitment from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to now spend what appears to be at least $500 million building two new youth prisons in the state’s north and south-east corner, the expired plan also only mentions a new site in Wacol – opened in late 2020 – and the expansion of one next door.

The Justice Reform Initiative has estimated the $5.7 million spent by the government on a youth prison capacity expansion business case – handed to it in June but not released publicly – was more than four times the amount of grant money directed to community-led youth justice programs last financial year.