‘Untenable’: Queensland youth crime parliamentary committee disbanded

A powerful bipartisan parliamentary committee tasked with finding fixes for Queensland’s youth crime crisis has collapsed with its independent chair telling parliament her position had become ‘untenable’.

Independent MP Sandy Bolton has declared her position ‘untenable’. Picture: David Clark

A powerful bipartisan parliamentary committee tasked with finding fixes for Queensland’s youth crime crisis has collapsed with its independent chair telling parliament her position had become “untenable”.

Set up by former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in a bid to cauterise community and political anger ahead of October’s state election, the committee has been probing causes and solutions for juvenile crime for six months.

The committee – made up of three Labor MPs, three Liberal National Party MPs and chaired by independent MP Sandy Bolton – has been forced to delay the release of its interim report three times after failing to reach consensus on its recommendations to government.

In a late evening debate in parliament on Wednesday, the committee was disbanded.

Ms Bolton told parliament she had tried to work “patiently, impartially, respectfully and collaboratively with both sides of this chamber to give a balanced, nonpartisan report on the many contentious issues that we’ve heard about”.

“That we have not delivered a bipartisan agreement so far, as needed by Queenslanders, has been personally and otherwise deeply disappointing,” she said.

“It is for these reasons that I regretfully, really regretfully, stand here to seek the parliament’s support to amend the voting rules.”

The LNP’s Laura Gerber, a former federal prosecutor, said she could not support the interim report because there were recommendations that would regulate media reporting on youth crime.

“Our LNP members could not, would not, put our name to any provisions that gag the media,” she said.

Labor MP Jonty Bush, a former Queensland Homicide Victim Support Group chief executive, accused the LNP of blocking the report's release.

“This was the first independently chaired committee in more than two decades for many this signalled a fresh approach,” she said.

“While I don’t agree with all the recommendations in the report, it’s important that findings from the committee are made, they are published and they’re placed into the public domain for Queenslanders to examine and debate.”

The committee is expected to release its report on Thursday before it is disbanded.