Editorial: Wakeup call as youth crime crisis grips entire state

It took the tragic murder of a young mother in the southeast for the state government to begin acknowledging the extent of regional juvenile crime, writes the editor.

You don’t need to stretch your imagination to grasp the horrific reality of youth crime in this state.

You need only visit Mount Isa.

The mining town 900km west of Townsville is a magnificent example of the contribution that post-war immigration, combined with mineral wealth, made to the success of this nation.

But the easy affability of Mount Isa, once encapsulated in local institutions such as the Irish Club, is being replaced by suspicion, fear, resentment and outright anger.

The Courier-Mail – which sent a team to the northwestern city to compile a special report that features in today’s edition – has found how teenagers are menacing the town.

These children have forced residents to live behind locked doors, too scared to leave their home, walk to their car alone or even drive at night.

Mount Isa is not just another Alice Springs.

It’s another Townsville, or a Cairns or a Mackay or any number of smaller towns dotted throughout the vast regions of this decentralised state confronting a crisis which no one seems capable of genuinely understanding, let alone resolving.

Queenslanders who remember a time when juvenile crime was far rarer are not sentimental romantics hearkening back to mythical “good old days”.

They simply want to feel safe in their own town.

And they have a right to do just that.

Mount Isa’s local Member for Traeger Robbie Katter has, quite rightly, lamented the fact that it took the tragic murder of a young mother in the southeast for this government to begin acknowledging the extent of regional juvenile crime.

The regions feel that in many cases they’ve been left to battle the crime onslaught on their own.

This week the mayors of the two biggest cities in the north pleaded for Northern Territory-style liquor restrictions to be brought in to curb alcohol-fuelled crime.

They are truly desperate.

We are all well aware that there are no easy solutions.

And the state itself is grabbing at straws, with our leaders often appearing utterly baffled by the extent of a problem which has not only terrified ordinary Queenslanders, but infuriated them.

The Labor government, stung into action by the force of community outrage, has also this week offered bipartisan support to the LNP’s policy of reintroducing bail breach as a criminal offence.

But this ever-escalating situation has to be seen through a prism beyond politics, and there’s much more work to do.

IT’S A SUPER PROBLEM

The rules surrounding superannuation are again under examination.

The scheme to assist Australian workers raise their own retirement funds assisted by attractive tax breaks was one of the Australian Labor Party’s visionary policies, brought to life by ALP luminary Paul Keating.

But the present Labor government is on notice that, much like the stock market, superannuation hates uncertainty.

Middle-aged voters preparing for retirement who helped put this administration into office have carefully noted the Anthony Albanese campaign pledge not to make “major changes’’ to super.

Already grappling with a horror cost-of-living crisis, average people are not thrilled with confronting doubt over the future of their super.

A tax recalibration on super balances exceeding $3m, which appears to be one proposal, will mean very little to average Australians who cannot dream of such a super balance.

But, for average people, the uncertainty and the post-election surprise does means something, even if they are told changes aren’t “major” and should not directly affect them.

It would be an act of bad faith by this government to start renovating tax arrangements for people who entered into the superannuation pact with good faith, and agreed to take advantage of the tax breaks through salary sacrifice to accumulate attractive super balances.

The federal Labor Party must surely remember the dangers of frightening this worthy cohort of Australians from its experience in the 2019 federal election when it threatened to wind back dividend imputation which formed part of many self-funded retirees’ financial plans.

The government must let us the Australian people know exactly what they intend doing as soon as possible.

And, preferably, well before the May budget.

Originally published as Editorial: Wakeup call as youth crime crisis grips entire state