Premier David Crisafulli not ruling out changes to Youth Justice cautions

Changes could be on the way to the state’s youth crime laws to stop young offenders avoiding court and new Adult Crime, Adult Time penalties. Read what the Premier said.

Premier David Crisafulli hasn’t ruled out changes to youth cautions. Picture: NewsWire.

Premier David Crisafulli has not ruled out changes to laws which allow young offenders to avoid going to court and facing tougher penalties under new Adult Crime, Adult Time legislation.

The Bulletin last month revealed almost a quarter of youth criminals who admitted to committing offences last financial year did not face criminal prosecution. Instead, they were issued with an official caution from police.

The discretionary power came under fire after a 15-year-old boy charged over a sickening gang bashing at Burleigh Heads on Australia Day, which left two boys in hospital with serious injuries, was cautioned by police instead of facing court and new tougher penalties.

The Australia Day attack happened near Justins Park, Burleigh Heads. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Mr Crisafulli confirmed the second round of Adult Crime, Adult Time legislation to go before parliament this week won’t include changes to youth cautions, but didn’t rule it out in the future.

“I want to be crystal clear – this is not the last round of changes,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“We promised people that we would do the first round before Christmas, tick. We said we’d set up the expert panel and that in this calendar year we would bring forward the next round (of laws), tick.

“It’s only the next step in the journey.”

The 2023-24 Children's Court Annual report shows police dished out 15,589 cautions for that period, accounting for 28 per cent of police actions taken against youth offenders.

Under the Youth Justice Act, unless a juvenile has committed a serious offence, a police officer must consider a caution or another diversion method before criminal prosecution.

A serious offence is defined as any with a life sentence – or one if committed by an adult that would make the adult liable for 14 years jail.

A senior police source on the southern Coast beat previously said there was no “hard or fast” rule when it came to issuing cautions and it was a “slippery slope” for officers using discretion with youths.

“The legislation and the Youth Justice Act could be refined to limit circumstances where we (police) have discretion to issue a caution,” the officer said.

Originally published as Premier David Crisafulli not ruling out changes to Youth Justice cautions