Police Minister Dan Purdie speaks on new crime Adult Crime Adult Time laws and plans for expanding

Queensland’s Police Minister has spoken on the Adult Crime Adult Time laws which passed last week and what that means for Townsville as local police share their strategy for the ‘busy Christmas period’.

Member for Townsville Adam Baillie, Member for Thuringowa Natalie Marr and Member for Mundingburra Janelle Poole with Minister for Police Dan Purdie. Picture by Nikita McGuire

In Townsville to send to ‘send a loud message to all wannabe thugs’ in the city, Minister for Police Dan Purdie said the LNP government is putting their plan into action to give police their laws back as part of the first step-in their Making Queensland Safer Plan.

With the Adult Crime Adult Time laws being passed in parliament last week, Mr Purdie said on Tuesday that the police are now ‘armed with tougher laws’ that will provide consequences.

“The jig is up for the young, violent repeat offenders who have been terrorising Townsville under the protection of Labor’s weak crime laws,” he said.

Citing data released today Mr Purdie said the stats show what all people of Townsville and North Queensland have known for some time, that North Queensland is the ‘epicentre of the youth crime crisis’.

Minister for Police Dan Purdie. Picture: Evan Morgan

“Almost 2000 reported breached of bail offences over the last 11 months in Townsville here alone, that just shows we have a generation of untouchables who have been thumbing their nose at the police and courts, they are being put on bail and they’re breaching that bail,” he said.

In the lead up to Christmas Mr Purdie said the government is looking at modelling to ensure that police watch houses and Cleveland Detention Centre are equipped for the traditionally high-capacity levels at this time of year.

“At the moment these watch houses and youth detention centres are filled with the same offenders,” he said.

“We do know, as we’ve shown in other states, that a harsh penalty does act as a strong deterrent. We are confident moving forward that his will stop young offenders from continually committing crime.”

The Minister said with Cleveland having a 90 per cent recidivism rate, the government wanted to stop the revolving door.

“We don't’ want more kids locked up, we want kids to stop committing crime,” he said.

“We need to invest in some local community groups that are doing early intervention and some rehabilitation. We need to divert as many young people as we can away from entering the life of crime and those that have made the bad choice and are in the life of crime, we need to rehabilitate them.”

Premier David Crisafulli will meet with victims of crime and hold a news conference in Townsville this morning, Pic supplied by the office of the Premier

The former police detective said when he was on the front line in 2017 there were ‘zero kids in the watch house’, saying the current levels are a crisis the LNP inherited.

“Over the last ten years those appropriate early intervention prevention and properly funded early intervention programs have dwindled away and so have rehabilitation programs,” he said.

“We’ve announced every child released from custody will go into a 12 month intensive rehabilitation program.”

Member for Townsville Adam Baillie said with David Crisafulli visiting Townsville last week and the Police Minister Dan Purdie visiting on Tuesday, it showed the government has a ‘strong focus’ on crime in Townsville.

Mr Baillie said the new laws were the first step of the government's plan, with more announcements to come.

“The numbers released today just demonstrate what Townsville has been living through,” he said.

“Residents of Townsville have had enough of the crime over the last ten years, it’s been running out of control.”

“We have the laws in place now, we’ll continue to put in place other measures that we’ve announced prior to the election over the coming weeks, months and years, but right now we are focused on helping police navigate these new laws with the new legislation, hold these new offenders to account and make Townsville a safer and better place to live.”

Townsville District Officer Chief Superintendent Graeme Paine said police in the city will continue to work ‘extremely hard’ to target offenders during the busy end-of-year period.

“We’ve got a really significant police presence planned to respond any issues and manage some of those events that will occur across the Christmas and New Year period,” he said.

He also urged locals to drive safely, plan their trips and report any suspicious behaviour to police.

Originally published as Police Minister Dan Purdie speaks on new crime Adult Crime Adult Time laws and plans for expanding