It’s easy to talk tough, but just get it right
LNP leader Deb Frecklington will announce her new youth justice shake-up today. But this is a fraught issue, as both the Newman and Palaszczuk governments can attest to, and both parties will need to learn from past efforts if anything is to be solved, writes Jessica Marszalek.
WHEN the Palaszczuk Government swept to power in 2015, they gleefully dumped Campbell Newman’s signature youth boot camps policy.
The trial, meant to cut repeat offending of juveniles and prevent high-risk kids getting into trouble, had made no difference to the 35 kids who completed it, but stuck taxpayers with an eye-watering bill.
Three strikes: LNP’s plan to combat youth crime
At $2350 per person per day – much higher than the $999 daily cost of detention – the budget for what was meant to be a $2 million trial ran out of control, with almost $9 million in operational and set-up costs alone.
The program had been poorly designed without proper input from stakeholders and families didn’t want a bar of it, thanks to its goofy name, an independent evaluation by KPMG found.
In her second major announcement in just weeks following her redesign of the child safety system, LNP leader Deb Frecklington will announce her new youth justice shake-up.
It takes a “carrot and stick” approach, melding three-strikes mandatory detention with a willingness to fund private programs around rehabilitation and prevention.
But this is a fraught issue, as both the Newman and indeed Palaszczuk governments can attest to.
Youth detention buckled under the weight of inmates last year, and a plan to take off the strain turned into a courthouse merry-go-round when legislation encouraged judges to let recidivist offenders go.
Despite an extraordinary attack on the judiciary, the government has since backflipped and strengthened laws last month to keep recidivist kids in custody. It’s easy for political leaders to talk tough on crime.
Both the LNP and Labor will need to learn the lessons from their past efforts if anything is to be solved.