Queensland election: LNP gets tough with kids’ curfew

A Liberal National Party government would trial a night-time curfew on youths in the electoral battleground cities of Cairns and Townsville.

Queensland LNP leader Deb Frecklington speaks with journalists on the plane after landing in Cairns on Tuesday. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Crime in north Queensland has been thrust to the centre of the state election campaign after the opposition announced a Liberal National Party government would trial a night-time curfew on youths in the electoral battleground cities of Cairns and Townsville.

The plan was met with support from local community safety groups, who said it would make them feel safe, and condemnation from indigenous leaders, who said it would unfairly target Aboriginal children.

Announcing the plan on Wednesday, LNP leader Deb Frecklington, on her third visit to Townsville during the campaign, said the curfew would apply from 8pm for children aged 14 and younger and 10pm for youths aged 15 to 17. Police would have the power to take a youth to a community refuge, where they would stay until a parent or social worker picked them up.

Parents would be fined $250 if their child was found on the streets without a reasonable excuse.

Youth crime has been a recurring election issue in Cairns and Townsville, which have a combined five marginal Labor seats — Townsville (held on a margin of 0.38 per cent), Thuringowa (4.1 per cent), Mundingburra (1.1 per cent), Barron River (1.8 per cent) and Cairns (3.3 per cent).

Ms Frecklington said the curfew would ensure parents took ­responsibility for their children.

“We’ve got to give police the powers that they need,” she said.

“The police here in Townsville know who these youths are, they know the youths are laughing in the face of the police officers, they are laughing in the face of the government because Labor are soft on crime.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, also in Townsville for the second time in the campaign, ­refused to offer an opinion on the merit of the curfew, but criticised the LNP for a lack of detail.

“She (Ms Frecklington) hasn’t explained how it works,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “Everyone deserves to be safe in their own home, but in all honesty, we’re putting more police (in Townsville).”

The LNP, which had a similar curfew policy in 2017, has focused on the Townsville’s youth crime issue and vowed to reintroduce breach of bail as an offence for ­juveniles.

Ms Frecklington said that since Ms Palaszczuk became Premier, robberies in Townsville had ­increased 162 per cent, car theft was up 99 per cent and break-ins had risen 87 per cent.

Jeff Adams, a spokesman for Townsville community safety lobby group One Community One Standard, welcomed the ­curfew. “Any step that takes these kids off the street at night and makes us feel a lot safer is a step in the right direction,” he said. “It would also take the sting out of the racial ­aspect because it’s for all kids.”

Townsville Indigenous advocate Gracelyn Smallwood disagreed, saying the policy would unfairly target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

“I want to have a go at all governments that, when an election comes, Aboriginal and islander people are targeted,” she said.

“Seventeen-year-olds seen on the street after 8pm or 10pm, to be subject to a curfew. is ridiculous.

“Curfews never work. Only a very small percentage of youths commit crimes in Townsville and Cairns.”

Townsville Labor Mayor Jenny Hill said the policy needed to be clarified and questioned whether it was an appropriate use of police resources.

“Like many communities across Queensland, Townsville does have an issue with a small group of young people committing crime and causing trouble,” she said. “It’s a complex problem that needs a comprehensive solution.

“Quite frankly, the LNP’s curfew policy looks like nothing more than a thought bubble.”

Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Janet Wight said the curfew seemed “excessive”. Lawyer and civil libertarian Terry O’Gorman said recent curfews in Alice Springs and Perth’s Northbridge had not worked and the LNP’s policy was “doomed to fail”.