Premier moves to help victims of crime, days after MP broke ranks

Public calls for a review into support for victims of crime by a Labor backbencher whose sister and father were killed by two young men will be heeded by the Queensland premier.

Cooper MP Jonty Bush broke ranks last week to lodge her own public submission to the rushed and heavily criticised parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s controversial youth justice crackdown.

Among veiled comments about the need for evidence-backed measures and “courage” to reform the justice system, Bush called for a review of government help to victims, efforts to boost mediation conferences and improve real-time details shared by police.

The recommendations were taken up by the parliamentary committee that considered the bill, with a suggestion the government do the same.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed her government would.

Jonty Bush – pictured after her election in 2020 with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – was the only MP to make a submission over the controversial bill.Credit: Glenn Hunt

“We will be adopting the committee’s recommendations about referring to the committee an inquiry into what we can do more to assist victims,” Palaszczuk said, also referencing the calls to improve police engagement with victims of crime.

“And I think that’s something that the whole parliament should support.”

Bush’s public submission was drawn from her long advocacy for victims of crime and decade of criminal justice work within the government before entering parliament in 2020, along with her first-hand experience with the system after two young men killed her sister and father.

It gave the clearest public indication yet of internal tension among some Labor MPs uncomfortable with the government’s pursuit of punitive measures, in contradiction with its own long-term strategies and amid pressure from both the Greens and LNP for either more evidence-based or tougher approaches.

With a debate on the bill expected to take up most of the parliamentary sitting week, the LNP sought to move an amendment to remove the long-standing and United Nations-backed sentencing principle that detention for children be a last resort.

LNP police spokesman Dale Last used his speech on the bill to criticise the government for failing to make clear in December when it announced some of the measures that the full new maximum penalties would not be passed onto children.

Academics, legal bodies and advocacy groups have warned the government’s bill – which requires an unprecedented override of the state’s human rights laws – would ultimately harm community safety rather than improve it by pulling more young people deeper into the criminal justice system and cycles of crime.

The parliamentary legal affairs and safety committee, of which Bush is a member, will carry out the review of support for victims of crime.

Neither it nor the committee with oversight of youth justice issues were tasked with scrutiny of the bill now before parliament and expected to pass this week.

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