Campbell Newman revisits youth camps
Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has called for a return of controversial boot camps introduced by his government.
Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has called for a return of controversial boot camps introduced by his government as the state’s youth justice system reaches crisis point.
Juveniles are routinely being detained in adult watch-houses, in breach of police policy, because the state’s three youth prisons are at capacity.
The government has for years been warned about capacity issues, a problem exacerbated by a decision to shift 17-year-olds out of adult prisons into youth centres and tougher bail laws passed in 2021.
Former judges, youth advocates and other criminal justice experts have called on the Palaszczuk government to abandon proposed youth crime legislation, due to be introduced to parliament next week, which they say will make problems worse.
Mr Newman, who served as premier from 2012 to 2015, said the state should revisit boot camps for criminal children, which were trialled by his government in 2013.
“I don't think putting young offenders into jail is a good idea … it is not going to lead to improved outcomes,” Mr Newman told The Australian.
“I support taking people out of the communities that they are causing so much grief in, and actually having programs where they are shown leadership, tough love and are inspired to do something different with their lives.
“We‘ve got to have programs that will protect the community, and that can be done without locking kids in jail where they will socialise with other young crims. There does need to be an alternative to putting young offenders into jail and we had a program for that, which the Labor Party got rid of.”
The boot camps, trialled at Cairns and the Gold Coast, targeted either at-risk children or post-sentencing teenagers who would avoid spending time in a detention centre.
They were scrapped by the Palaszczuk government in 2015 after a scathing auditor-general’s report, raised allegations of favouritism and wastage of taxpayer funds.
Budgeted in 2012 to cost $4.9m, auditor KPMG found the project blew out to $16.7m in three years.
Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the KPMG report found boot camps were “expensive, ineffective and poorly planned”.
Ms Linard said the government had “continually increased the number and type of diversionary and intervention programs available” and increased the number of beds at youth detention centres by a third since 2015.
Legal experts, including former Court of Appeal President Margaret McMurdo, have criticised the government for failing to invest enough in crime prevention.
Asked if an LNP government would reintroduce boot camps, an opposition spokeswoman said: “The LNP team will be putting forward immediate amendments in Parliament next week and will outline a detailed suite of measures before the next election”.
Katter’s Australian Party has long advocated for relocation sentencing, where recidivist youth offenders would be sent to remote properties for a minimum of six months to “work on the land” while completing compulsory therapeutic programs.
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