Young criminals to be compared to adult cases when sentenced under LNP policy

The LNP has dismissed concerns from lawyers over a proposed youth justice policy, with leader David Crisafulli confirming he expects judges to look at similar adult cases when sentencing children.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has dismissed concerns from Queensland’s legal fraternity over his landmark commitment to impose adult jail sentences on repeat juvenile offenders, confirming he expects judges to take into account criminal history and previous similar adult cases when sentencing children.

The LNP this week launched a new youth crime policy that, if elected in October, would aim to abolish current maximum detention sentences for juvenile offenders who commit murder, manslaughter, wounding, home and business break ins, robbery, car theft and dangerous operation of a vehicle.

The policy concept would effectively see children subject to the same sentencing provisions as adults, meaning their criminal history would be factored into their sentence, and their case would be compared to similar adult cases for sentencing purposes.

The policy was criticised for lacking real implementation detail, with high profile lawyers calling it “short sighted” and a “cheap” election slogan.

But Mr Crisafulli remains adamant it would be more effective than current juvenile sentencing provisions.

“It’s those points of view for the last decade that have led us to where we are today,” he said.

Under an LNP-led government, an expert panel would be appointed to guide the sentencing structure, however the LNP is yet to release detail on exactly how the legislation would be drafted before its put before parliament or how many juvenile offenders it predicts the policy would put behind bars.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in Townsville this week. Picture: Supplied

The Australian Human Rights Commission has questioned Queensland’s detention centre capacity, with National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds accusing the LNP of not addressing the root causes of youth crime.

“Queensland already has the toughest youth crime laws in the country which has only led to overflowing children’s prisons and police watchhouses, and egregious breaches of human rights,” she said.

“Knee-jerk, punitive solutions by political parties which boast about being tough on crime are not only failing to deal with the root causes but are contributing to more crime – not less.”

Mr Crisafulli said the LNP had presented a holistic policy to tackle youth crime, including a $175 million investment into 12-month post-detention release programs, which had been “overwhelmingly” backed.

“There’ll be individual programs for individual regions, but one thing will be consistent and that is that it’ll be a 12 month program to make sure that young people are given that opportunity to turn their lives around,” he said.

National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds. Picture: David Maurice Smith/Oculi.

Youth engagement service Fearless Towards Success founder Selena Walters said young offenders had been let down by Queensland’s existing rehabilitation programs and were constantly reoffending due to a lack of support.

“In the last five years, the government spent $132 million on service providers, and they’re just rolling over contracts,” she said.

“I’ve lost count of the kids who are telling me they’re back in stolen cars the first night they’re out of detention.”

Ms Walters praised the LNPs commitment to funding long-term community rehabilitation programs, which she said had proven success with repeat offenders and called for more support from the government.

“The fact is serious repeat offenders in the last five years has increased 64 per cent,” she said.

“There was 10 per cent of kids doing 48 per cent of crime a few years ago. Now there’s 20 per cent doing 55 per cent of the crime.

“Over 50 per cent of kids are reoffending within the first two weeks … so why keep throwing all this money at these existing programs?”