‘We’re throwing all options on the table: Cook MP Cynthia Lui responds to youth detention critics

Several prominent voices in the youth justice debate called on Cook MP Cynthia Lui to denounce the state government’s plans to plonk a youth detention centre in FNQ. Read how she responded.

Cook MP Cynthia Lui has backed the state government’s consideration of new youth detention centres but said imprisoning juveniles should remain the “last resort” among a wide pool of solutions and intervention strategies.

Prominent voices in the youth justice debate called on Ms Lui to denounce the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement that a new youth detention centre could be constructed in Cairns – because the inmate population would be over-represented by Indigenous children.

But Ms Lui expressed a carefully considered view of the matter, saying every intervention had its place.

“No-one wants to see young people in detention centres; I certainly don’t. But, there are consequences for those who continue to reoffend, whether they’re Indigenous or non-Indigenous, our community deserves to feel safe,” Ms Lui said.

Cook MP Cynthia Lui. Picture: Isaac McCarthy

“Detention centres are there for the most extreme … youth detention should be the last resort.”

Ms Lui said plans for a new centre are not yet concrete.

“There’s been conversations about it, but not really a commitment set in place just yet,” she said.

“With everything that’s currently happening on the news, we’re throwing all options on the table. (The premier’s announcement) didn’t surprise me because youth detention centres are not a new thing.”

Ms Lui expressed concern about the rates of Indigenous juveniles incarcerated and agreed their over-representation in detention would begin to disappear when children increasingly engage with education and more parents have greater participation in the economy.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk slipped in a surprise announcement about a possible youth detention centre situated in Cairns while making a visit to a Far North wind farm. Picture: Supplied by Queensland government

“I don’t want to see any First Nations kids in youth detention centres,” she said.

“We should be preventing those kids going into the youth justice system; we should be putting more into intervention.

“Why is there a large representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in the youth justice system … we need to look at the why in the whole situation. We need to look at the environment they come from.

“The whole environment around a child includes housing, domestic violence, education … this is not an issue where we could look down one lens and say ‘this is going to address the problem’. We need to look at all solutions.”

Ms Lui said that when a child came from a household with multiple issues, it wasn’t a good start.

“When we look at the youth justice space, we all know there’s issues going on. The government has invested $500m into intervention programs; we’re doing our best to address the core issue of ‘why are kids out there offending in society’.”

Originally published as ‘We’re throwing all options on the table: Cook MP Cynthia Lui responds to youth detention critics