KAP Mirani candidate Stephen Andrew calls for parental discipline ahead of state election

A North Queensland Katter’s Australian Party MP thinks parents should be given greater freedom to physically discipline their children to take matters into their own hands — with love.

Mirani MP Stephen Andrew has called for greater freedom for parents disciplining their children. Picture: Nigel Hallett

A Katter’s Australian Party MP wants parents to have the freedom to smack their kids, framing it as a solution to the youth crime crisis.

Mirani MP Stephen Andrew said generations before did not have the same issues and advocated for “greater freedom” for parents in disciplining their children.

When asked if that meant physical discipline, like smacking, he said yes.

“I think everyone should probably get a smack on the bottom but you don’t take it to extremes,” Mr Andrew said.

“It didn’t hurt me and never hurt anybody else.”

Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, said the out-of-control crime on the streets of North Queensland and across the country did not exist when he was growing up. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

When asked how that parental discipline would be monitored he said “each child has to be loved”.

“You know when it’s taken too far, as an adult to a smaller child you realise what’s right and wrong,” he said.

“You can’t legislate for human nature.”

Mr Andrew said it’s not as simple as holding parents personally responsible for their children’s crimes either.

“It’s complex, it’s generational and understandably has to be looked at in different ways,” he said.

“A recidivist offender that has multiple crimes and the parents have lost control, even after the most sincere attempts to sort them out, what’s left for them?

“When the child keeps going on with it then generally the parent takes it into their own hands.”

Mr Andrew is running with KAP after being disendorsed by One Nation earlier this year. (Image/Josh Woning)

Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) has broadly called for greater freedoms for parents to discipline their children as part of bringing youth offending down, blaming ‘soft parenting’ as part of the problem.

The KAP’s Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, said the out-of-control crime on the streets of North Queensland and across the country did not exist when he was growing up.

“We wouldn’t dare play up as kids, and if we did, we knew what was coming!

“All this terribly sad business of kids – as young a 10 or 12 – stealing motor vehicles and terrorising our streets has only developed after the wokies have infiltrated our households and what is considered ‘good parenting,’” Mr Katter said.

Mr Andrew, posting to his Facebook, recalled a conversation with an unnamed young woman in Mackay who said she saw police drop off a 13-year-old boy to his house after stealing and destroying two cars.

“His father was upset after hearing the carnage that transpired and went to discipline the lad, he was arrested and taken away leaving the young bloke at home unattended,” Mr Andrew wrote.

When asked about this story Mr Andrew stressed he wasn’t there and said “whether he was going to give him a smack on the bottom or talk to him square in the face I have no idea”.

“He didn’t get to do any discipline because he was taken into custody.”

Labor’s Mark Ryan, MP for Police and Community Safety claimed in July the “total number of unique youth offenders” was down by two per cent since the last financial year.
A December 2023 ABS report showed the number of young criminals in Queensland had increased 6 per cent to 10,878 offenders from the previous 12 months.