Youth crime Qld: Labor moves to dissolve deadlocked committee

A war of words has erupted after Labor moved to dissolve a parliamentary youth crime committee amid an impasse with LNP members.

LNP committee member Jim McDonald

The Miles Government has launched a shock bid to disband prematurely an independent committee it established into youth crime – throwing State Parliament into chaos.

The move was blamed on an irrevocable breakdown in relations between the LNP and Labor MPs on the committee – a stalemate which had caused delays in the interim report being published.

The bipartisan youth crime inquiry was launched by former Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in September last year amid growing pressures on the state government to do more on youth offending.

The seven-member committee was chaired by independent Noosa MP Sandy Bolton, with an even split of three Labor and three LNP MPs.

It was the first parliamentary committee to be independently chaired in more than two decades. It received more than 200 submissions and held 25 public hearings.

The committee was due to table a hefty interim report on March 28 but received deadline extensions to April 12 amid growing disagreements between Labor and the LNP over what should be included in the document.

It is understood the nearly 130 page report included a section headed “strengthening regulation of traditional and social media”.

The state government, in a surprise late-evening motion in parliament, moved to compel the independent committee to table the report by 12pm on Thursday.

Committee chair Sandy Bolton

Leader of government business Mick de Brenni then moved to dissolve the committee, meaning it cannot continue its work.

Ms Bolton, in a speech to parliament, said she had endeavoured at every step to work “patiently, impartially, respectfully and collaboratively” with both sides.

“This has been in an incredibly difficult environment, heightened by media and the politics with the upcoming elections. This has not been easy,” she said.

“I have sought to achieve compromises in efforts to reach a bipartisan agreement which consistently has been asked for by Queenslanders, whether it’s been in public hearings or otherwise.

“That we have not delivered a bipartisan agreement so far … has been personally and otherwise deeply disappointing.”

Lockyer MP Jim McDonald, an LNP member of the committee, slammed the government’s move as an “absolute disgrace” and accused it of turning the committee into a political plaything.

The committee’s deputy chair, Labor’s Jonty Bush, said the “rare and powerful parliamentary committee” had been compromised by the Opposition members’ inability to agree on outcomes for an interim report.

“The LNP have let down every single victim of crime in Queensland … every one of the 300 young people sitting right now in Queensland watch houses,” she said.