Youth crime details, ‘stuff-up Steven’: LNP launches election campaign
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has announced another flank of his youth crime response, dubbed “detention with purpose”, at the LNP campaign launch on Sunday.
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Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has announced another flank of his youth crime response, dubbed “detention with purpose”.
He said it would have three pillars.
Education would be compulsory, meaning kids in youth detention would no longer be able to opt out of school, any violence against staff would result in a minimum isolation period, and youth inmates would be rewarded with privileges for good behaviour and have them removed for bad behaviour.
“We will consult with stakeholders, including the department frontline staff, behavioural experts and police, to determine what the minimum period of isolation should be,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“One thing’s for certain, a few minutes to cool down after assaulting someone doing their job is not on and will change.”
Mr Crisafulli warned young offenders would receive “consequences” for their actions under his government.
“Frontline staff tell us access to a television in a young person’s room is almost never denied, despite the severity of the behaviour, because it is considered a human right,” he said.
“We have different opinions.
“Access to food is a human right, access to shelter is a human right, access to education is a human right, access to television is not and it’s a privilege.”
Mr Crisafulli was delivering his stump speech at the LNP convention, again focusing on what he calls the “four crises” facing Queenslanders.
“It’s the crime crisis where I want to focus today,” Mr Crisafulli said.
The LNP is launching its campaign in Labor’s heartland seat of Ipswich.
Mr Crisafulli was introduced by Cindy Micallef, whose mother Vyleen White was killed while shopping at Redbank Plains in February - allegedly at the hands of a 16-year-old boy.
Ms Micallef, said there was “no other option” but to make Mr Crisafulli the next Premier of Queensland.
She made the comments as a guest speaker at the LNP’s campaign launch at the Ipswich Showgrounds.
“Labor and Steven Miles have run from the victims of the youth crime crisis… we’ve watch David and the LNP team tackle it head on,” Ms Micallef said.
“I am one of the few Queenslanders who looked both Steven Miles and David Crisafulli in the eye and this is why I will be voting for David Crisafulli and the LNP team.”
Ms White’s husband Victor is in the front row of the crowd.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding earlier opened the LNP’s campaign launch by introducing Deputy Leader Jarrod Bleijie.
Mr Bleijie labelled Premier Steven Miles a “desperate man inside all of those weird videos he posts”.
“Everything he touches he stuffs up... I call him stuff-up Steven,” he said.
The location of the LNP’s campaign launch was discovered by union protesters, who were chanting outside the locked gates.
They targeted the LNP’s stance on abortion and claimed the party would cut workers and sell assets.
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Premier Steven Miles has dismissed the LNP’s “detention with purpose” plan, stating mandatory minimum sentencing and solitary confinement will not have an affect on the state’s youth crime scourge.
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