Editorial: The real world shows Premier’s youth crime laws aren’t enough

The so-called “strongest” youth crime laws in the nation would have done nothing to prevent Sunday night’s tragic triple-fatal crash. More needs to be done, writes The Editor.

The revelation that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s “strongest” youth crime laws in the nation would not have done anything to prevent Sunday night’s tragedy where a 13 year-old serial car thief in state care allegedly stole a vehicle which he then crashed, killing three innocent people, proves that much more needs to be done.

We acknowledge the Premier is right when she said yesterday that “no-one is going to stop youth crime”. But she must also stop relying on her repeated defence that people need to be patient, as the nation’s “strongest laws” recently rushed through State Parliament will make a difference.

They won’t. As we report today, they would have done nothing to prevent Sunday night’s tragedy.

As we said yesterday in this column, preventing youth crime requires so much more. At its core it needs a long-term strategy of early intervention – something this government has not ever properly funded, or engaged in deeply.

Having clearly read this column yesterday, the Premier boasted of the “millions of dollars going into early intervention programs”. But those at the coalface have lamented for years that they simply cannot get engagement on this issue from this government. That is a fact.

CCTV vision of two youths allegedly stealing a car before they were involved in a fatal car crash in Maryborough. Picture: Channel 7

Also a fact is that experts say the worst youth offenders can usually be identified at age 5. The 13-year-old charged over Sunday’s tragedy was five when the Palaszczuk government came to office.

We also said yesterday here that the adults with legal responsibility for these children need to step up and do their job. Again, the Premier echoed those sentiments yesterday when she said: “Also too, you know, there is a case to be said for more parental responsibility as well, and where we can we are assisting families.” But the charged 13-year-old was in the care of the state – meaning it was the government who was his legal guardian; and that was the same with the boys charged over the Boxing Day stabbing of Emma Lovell at North Lakes, north of Brisbane. Something is clearly not working, and the government is responsible.

The good news is that – at the Opposition’s urging – the auditor-general is doing a “performance audit” on the state’s youth justice initiatives. We await these findings with interest, and would expect the government to show far more urgency in responding to what is uncovered than it has shown when it comes to the recommendations of last year’s Coaldrake Review into government integrity.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, meanwhile, has picked up on the need for “gold standard” early intervention programs and promised reform in this area if he wins the election in October 2024.

But he has so far failed to detail exactly what he means by “gold standard” programs. The LNP policy is instead to request a review by the auditor-general of the existing government-funded early intervention programs “to identify future opportunities to break the cycle of young offenders”.

We would urge him to add some more detail to that promise when the current auditor-general’s review is complete. It is so critical that the person who could be our premier by Christmas next year starts to explain properly what he would do if the LNP does win.

We take seriously our job at The Courier-Mail of scrutinising the government. Eighteen months out from the election, we promise to turn our blowtorch to both sides.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR BRAVERY AND SERVICE

We owe so much as a community to those who put themselves in harm’s way for our safety. The bravery and commitment of those who serve in our defence force, police and in our emergency services should never be taken for granted.

And so we should today all pause for a moment of quiet reflection in our own way to pay tribute to and give thanks for the service of Izabella Nash, the brave firefighter who died after she became trapped and ran out of air inside a factory inferno south of Brisbane in the early hours of Tuesday.

She was remembered yesterday by Assistant Commissioner John Cawcutt as someone who was welcoming of new recruits, with a good smile – and the ability to both “take a joke, and give it out as well”.

We also should think of Ms Nash’s colleague Lia Drew, who remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition – but with weeks and months of recovery ahead in the burns unit. We wish her the best, and thank those doctors and nurses who are caring for her.

Fire and Emergency Services Acting Commissioner Mike Wassing said yesterday that “there are inherent risks ... and sometimes unpredictable dangers associated with this line of work”.

And that is the point. While thankfully fatalities are now rare in firefighting, these are still people who go to work every day knowing there is a greater than normal risk that they will not be coming home.

To every firefighter – and to their families – we say simply: thank you.