Youth Crime Taskforce’s George Marchesini visits Central Highlands

Acting Assistant Commissioner George Marchesini says early intervention from a young age is key to addressing youth crime. It comes as new statistics show a 14.8 per cent increase in the total recorded offences in Central Queensland compared to the year before.

Acting Assistant Commissioner George Marchesini. Photo Steve Pohlner

During a visit to Central Queensland, Youth Crime Taskforce commander George Marchesini admits you will never be able to get rid of crime, but intervention from a young age goes a long way to help.

The acting Assistant Commissioner was appointed to the role in February and has spent a lot of time travelling across the state, speaking with frontline workers and agencies on their thoughts about youth crime.

Asst Comm Marchesini will bring together programs working well across the state to towns with higher amounts of crime, such as Mount Isa and Cairns.

“Looking at what other solutions we can focus on,” he said.

“A lot of it is ideas from the leaders in the local community on what works for their area.”

EMERALD PROGRAMS HELPING LOWER YOUTH CRIME

One area with low youth crime is Emerald, west of Rockhampton.

During a visit to the town, acting Asst Comm Marchesini spent most of his time with the youth development team at Central Highlands Regional Council, Central Highlands Mayor Kerry Hayes and other youth frontline stakeholders.

“We talked through some of the things they were doing locally working with the community,” he said.

Asst Comm Marchesini noted the Central Highlands Regional Council has a youth development team and is actively involved in the community and schools.

“The whole concept of the council taking a leadership role is really important, how they are empowering their youth and encouraging leaders,” he said.

“They are doing a lot of stakeholder and community engagement, asking the community what they need.”

Asst Comm Marchesini applauded the Emerald PCYC for hosting drop-in sessions which help break down barriers with youths.

He also commended the statewide PCYC Braking the Cycle program, aimed at helping disadvantaged learner drivers complete their logbook hours.

“The goal isn’t about the licence, what they (the students) are getting is 100 hours of mentoring,” he said.

Early intervention is a key solution to reducing youth crime, Asst Comm Marchesini said, from the first 2000 days of a child’s life and schooling.

“We are seeing common themes, education, children to be engaged at an early age, what are some other solutions like flexi-school,” he said.

“The more investment we have in that early intervention (the better).”

It won’t fix crime completely, though.

“There is always going to be crime at some level, that’s part of living in a community,” he said.

“We have to have agencies working together, we can’t lose sight that the community plays a big part in this,” he said.

“Watchhouses aren’t the solution.”

Acting Asst Comm Marchesini’s visit comes after amendments were rushed through Parliament by Police Minister Mark Ryan to make it legal for Queensland police watch houses to be used as youth detention centres, overriding the Human Rights Act.

The government has said it will be a temporary measure to address youth detention centre overcrowding.

WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW

Statistics published by the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office in the Crime report Queensland 2021-2022 have revealed there has been a 14.8 per cent increase in total recorded offences in Central Queensland compared to the year before.

In 2020-21 there were 26,798 recorded offences compared to 30,924 in 2021-2022.

In terms of age of offenders, there were 52,742 child offenders (aged 10-17 years) in the past financial year, which equates to more than one in six offenders, an increase of 13.7 per cent on the year before.

The total number of child offenders was also the highest recorded in a ten-year period.

In state figures, child offenders accounted for 54.6 per cent of all offenders for unlawful use of a motor vehicle, 53.7 per cent of all robbery and 53.3 per cent of unlawful entry offences.

It should be noted from July 2021 police officers were required to record all criminal offences associated with domestic and family violence investigations.

It also noted there was a large decline in property and other offences due to social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In property offences alone, there were 11,023 recorded in Central Queensland in 2021-22, a 25.5 per cent increase on the year before.