‘Strong evidence’ drug use is helping to drive serious youth crime

Queensland’s Youth Justice Department believes increased drug use and housing issues could be driving a rise in the seriousness of some offending, while overall crime rates fall.

The detail is contained in a lengthy response from the department to parliament’s new bipartisan youth justice reform committee, set to hold its first three days of public hearings from Wednesday.

For years experts have been warning the Palaszczuk government and the LNP that “tough” youth justice policies would only exacerbate serious repeat offending.

Legal experts, youth and victim advocates, First Nations groups, human rights and union figures, former police commissioner Bob Atkinson AO, and the chief magistrate will give evidence this week.

The powerful committee of seven MPs – three Labor, three LNP and chaired by parliament’s sole independent member, Noosa’s Sandy Bolton – was recently set up by the Palaszczuk government to make bipartisan, evidence-based suggestions on how to address the politicised issue.

Department of Youth Justice, Employment, Small Business and Training director-general Bob Gee wrote in his briefing paper of the “significant role” of disadvantage and peer influence in shaping behaviour.

He pointed to data from surveys of young people engaged with the department between 2018 and 2022 that showed an increase in ice and other methamphetamine use from 17 to 20 per cent – more so in 10 to 13-year-olds.

“There is strong evidence to suggest that these factors are driving an increase in the seriousness of some high-risk youth offending,” he said.

Those living in unstable or unsuitable housing also rose from 19 to 30 per cent during that period, while the proportion of those with an active child protection order increased from 13 to 19 per cent. Almost 60 per cent were Indigenous youths.

The figures were higher, and the increases sharper, for those held in a youth prison or police watch house. But population-adjusted rates of all young people with proven offences fell from 88.9 to 58.5 per 10,000.

In a paper of its own that echoed comments by Gee and others involved in the debate about how to address a rise in serious offenders and community perceptions of crime, the Department of Treaty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships also weighed in.

“The significant over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the youth justice system is dependent upon a range of social, health, disability, educational and training factors,” it said.

“This data demonstrates the need for improved holistic approaches to youth justice.”

The department noted the findings from a recent Queensland Family and Child Commission report, along with calls from reform advocates, that programs to divert young people from the justice system designed by and based in communities have proved “highly effective”.

Minutes from a meeting of the committee – also among the range of recently published documents – show LNP MPs and Bolton unsuccessfully tried to refer Townsville-based Labor member Aaron Harper to the ethics committee – or have him replaced – over comments he made about a crime victim rally.

Harper reportedly used the words “rent-a-crowd” and “bloody LNP” to describe the October event, in which he said LNP MPs, candidates and staff heckled him as he tried to speak in the north Queensland city.

The committee later issued a statement accepting Harper’s apology for his “heat-of-the-moment” comments.

Bolton has said the committee will take a “phased approach” to its year-long work, building an evidence base and potential solutions through the initial hearings before further hearings across the state.

The committee’s deputy chair, outspoken Labor backbencher Jonty Bush, wrote on Instagram at the weekend that she was part of a “strong and growing cohort who want more from the system than the predictable ‘lock up more and lock them up longer’ narrative that keeps getting trotted out”.

Get the inside word on the news, sport, food, people and places Brisbane is talking about. Sign up for our City Talk newsletter here.