Opinion: How Labor unleashed youth crime wave in Queensland

Queenslanders terrorised by youths are being asked to turn their homes into jails when it is the criminals that should be there, writes Matt Canavan. HAVE YOUR SAY

One Queensland family’s Christmas has been ruined by a gang of recalcitrant juveniles who have repeatedly terrorised their family home. A week before Christmas three youths broke into their home and stole car keys.

The initial crime spree was foiled when the juveniles hit other cars while trying to get away. They were then scared off by locals responding to the commotion. But the juvenile criminals took the keys and have been back twice (including on Christmas Eve) scoping out the home in balaclavas.

Understandably this young Queensland family now struggle to sleep in their own home.

Emma Lovell died at her home in North Lakes on Boxing Day. Picture: Facebook

The local police know the offenders but their hands are tied by Queensland’s lax youth crime laws. Instead, police have told the frightened family that they should install a fence and buy a German shepherd. Why should Queenslanders have to turn their homes into a jail when it is the criminals that should be there?

When pressed one police officer said they need to write letters asking for tougher laws and that they should “blame the Labor Government.”

Queensland has been shocked by the tragic stabbing death of a young mum of two, Emma Lovell, on Boxing Day at her home in North Lakes. Her sad passing is the regrettable culmination of the surge in break-ins committed by juveniles since 2019. But for the grace of God, any break in creates the risk that something tragically goes wrong.

Why have juveniles been breaking the law with abandon since 2019? In August 2019, the Queensland Government changed the Youth Justice Act. In the words of the Government’s Explanatory Note about these changes, they had the “objective of removing legislative barriers to enable young people to be granted bail.” The changes told judges that the principle should be “detention as a last resort”, and that “the bail decision-making framework” incorporated an “explicit presumption in favour of release.”

Judges must be shaking their heads at the chutzpah of the Queensland Premier who under pressure given the spate of juvenile crime last month cowardly told judges “to do their job”. The Premier’s own Government told the courts just three years ago to rule with an “explicit presumption in favour of release!”

The data shows the clear impact of Labor’s liberal approach to young criminals. In the 12 months before the bail changes in 2019, there were a reported 6184 “unlawful entries” by juveniles. In the 12 months before November last year (the last month data is available for) there were 10,108 reported “unlawful entries” by juveniles.

There has not been an increase in unlawful entries by non-juveniles, in fact they have slightly fallen since 2019. This provides strong evidence that Labor’s youth bail changes are to blame.

Following Labor’s changes to bail there has been a staggering 63 per cent increase in juveniles breaking in to people’s homes and businesses. This is a recipe for a repeat of the tragic outcomes we saw on Boxing Day.

Annastacia Palaszczuk announces changes to the Youth Justice Act. Picture: David Clark

In response to the clear failure of their laws, the Labor government has tried a couple of times to put a band aid on this open wound. In 2021, the Government announced that courts could require juveniles to wear GPS tracking devices when on bail. Since then just 8 juveniles have been fitted with such devices. With 27 juvenile break-ins occurring every day in Queensland over the past year this will hardly make a difference.

Now again the Labor Premier is trying to her tired schtick of blaming others while announcing a hasty response that is meant to distract attention from the real issue. The Government’s latest thought bubbles include trialling engine immobilisers and the appointment of a new Police Assistant Commissioner.

It is time for the Queensland Government to stop eating Christmas pudding and instead digest some humble pie. Their botched 2019 reforms have clearly led to a youth crime epidemic and it is time to roll back to the laws we had pre-2019 before more innocent people are killed.

An online petition calling for an “Emma’s law” to strengthen bail laws has already received 134,000 signatures. The only reason the Queensland Government is not listening to this outcry is that the Premier is too proud to admit she was wrong.

If the Government will not act maybe it is time for us to take up the advice of that frustrated policeman and all write letters calling for action.

Matt Canavan is an LNP senator for Queensland

Originally published as Opinion: How Labor unleashed youth crime wave in Queensland