Lawyers slam Territory Opposition Leader’s ‘gutter politics’ over Palmerston youth rampage

THE body representing the NT’s criminal lawyers has slammed the Opposition’s response to a terrifying youth cafe rampage as ‘absolute gutter politics’ that ‘puts victims of crime last’

Criminal lawyers have slammed the Opposition’s ‘gutter politics’ approach to youth crime.

THE peak body representing the NT’s criminal lawyers has slammed the Territory Opposition’s response to a youth rampage in Palmerston on Wednesday as “absolute gutter politics” that “puts victims of crime last”.

In response to the shocking daylight ransacking of the Palmerston library and a nearby cafe, Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro lashed out at the government's “permissive policies” and called on it to take “immediate action to deal with youth crime”.

“Last week, the Government in fact weakened youth justice laws, with crazy measures like removing breach of bail conditions as an offence coming into force — the CLP has committed to winding back these changes,” she said.

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“Our police work hard every single day to keep us safe, yet our own government is letting them and the community down by making life easier for offenders.

“This has got to stop and until there are consequences for those who break the law, things will only get worse.”

But Criminal Lawyers Association of the NT president, Marty Aust, hit back at what he called “political gamesmanship”, describing the comments as “dangerous and incorrect”.

Mr Aust said there was “absolutely no link between this terrible and outrageous daylight offending and anything to do with breach of bail amendments or youth justice policy reform”.

“CLANT is disappointed and angry at the absolute gutter politics we have cautioned all political hopefuls against heading into the upcoming election,” he said.

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“NT police have an extremely difficult job to do and it is made more difficult by misleading and intentionally untruthful and dishonest statements by political parties.”

Mr Aust said it was “dishonest and misleading in the extreme” to suggest breach of bail laws had been removed and that there were “no consequences” for youths who breached their conditions.

“Breach of bail remains an offence for youths, only conditional breaches (as opposed to breaches by fresh offending or non-appearance at court) are no longer offences — a conditional breach does not result in a crime against any member of the NT community,” he said.

“Real and serious consequences remain for any youth that breaches bail, either by way of a conditional breach, a breach by non-appearance at court or by reoffending.

“If a youth breaches a condition of bail, they can still be brought before the court and have their bail varied or revoked and be remanded in detention.”

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Mr Aust pointed out the offence of breach of bail was introduced in 2011 by the then Country Liberals government and Labor’s changes had only come into effect just over a week ago.

“If you really want to reduce crime, have consequences and put victims first, then we must persist and strengthen our commitment to youth justice policy reform in line with the recommendations of the (Youth Justice) Royal Commission,” he said.

“Retrograde steps that can in no way whatsoever effectively tackle the problem but sound ‘tough’ are just plain dumb and risk the problems escalating through further generations.”