Cairns Mayor backs LNP government’s new youth crime laws as city labelled ‘crime capital’
Cairns Mayor Amy Eden says even if the new government’s youth crime laws don’t work, she’s prepared to give them a go while explaining why she thinks early intervention won’t always work.
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Cairns Mayor Amy Eden is staunchly backing removing repeat youth offenders from the community by way of “intense management,” labelling the city’s new title of youth crime capital as a “stain on our reputation”.
On Tuesday, the new LNP state government released police data which showed the Far North region was the worst in Queensland with 2082 breach of bail offences, 1017 cars stolen and 112 robberies committed by juveniles this year between January 1 and November 30.
In comparison, Townsville had racked up 1923 reported breach of bail offences, 642 stolen cars, and 130 robberies.
The release of information which the LNP says unveiled the true extent of Labor’s youth crime crisis comes as it passed its new Making Queensland Safer Laws last week – which included the principle of mandatory jail for repeat offenders committing serious car-related crimes.
Ms Eden said she was disappointed reading criticism of the new laws, while firmly arguing “early intervention is not going to be of use” for recidivist offenders.
“Well what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working either, and even if these don’t work, I’m really keen to roll up the sleeves and give it a go,” she said.
“We need to be prepared to try different things.
“It’s quite a small portion of recidivist offenders creating 80 per cent of the crime and vandalism that needs to be addressed.
“As a social worker, it’s not about early intervention for these recidivist offenders … they need very intense management of sorts to remove them from that environment, which is going to protect them and the wider community.”
Ms Eden said removing the “hardcore offenders” away from their peers, including cousins and siblings who “might be stumbling a little bit”, would take away aspirations for those kids to follow suit.
While Ms Eden acknowledged individual housing situations including overcrowding or culturally inappropriate housing were among the factors contributing to youth crime, she disagreed with widely-held views of kids needing “more to do” to cater for boredom.
Prior to the Making Queensland Safer Bill becoming law, Cairns Aboriginal affairs advocate Jack Wilkie-Jans said sentencing was only part of the equation, calling for an equal emphasis on crime prevention and early response.
With 97 per cent of children incarcerated at Townsville’s Cleveland Youth Detention Centre identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, Mr Wilkie-Jans questioned how effective the new laws would be as the state government did not consult directly with the region’s Indigenous communities – while snubbing Cairns for Townsville in its only public hearing outside Brisbane in the lead up to introducing its new legislation.
However, Ms Eden said she was not concerned the Premier hadn’t visited Cairns to discuss his new laws during the consultation period, noting she had reached out and was feeling “very comfortable and satisfied” with his approach.
“I have reached out to (David) Crisafulli and had interaction with him, I got a little handwritten note on the reply letter from Crisafulli to say they’re committed to working with our council to help in the crime situation.”
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Originally published as Cairns Mayor backs LNP government’s new youth crime laws as city labelled ‘crime capital’
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