The biggest problem with ‘adult crime, adult time’

Adult crime, adult time makes for a snappy slogan, but time of another kind will be needed to fix the youth crime crisis, writes Keith Woods.

Let’s talk time. Adult time.

Tomorrow it will be 200 days since July the seventh last year.

Why is that date significant? That was the day the LNP announced its ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ policy.

The party promised that if elected the “tough on crime policy” would form part of new laws focusing on serious crimes including murder, manslaughter, serious harm like wounding, break-ins and car theft.

“The LNP will restore consequences for actions to our youth crime laws and send a strong message that if you commit a serious crime you will pay with adult time,” then opposition leader David Crisafulli said at the time.

“This is the tough on crime response Queenslanders have been pleading for.”

Let’s talk some more time. And not a lot of it. 82 days. That’s how long it’s been since the new Crisafulli government ministry was sworn in.

Just under six weeks later on December 12 – another very short period of time – the new LNP government’s Making Queensland Safer Bill passed parliament.

Mr Crisafulli, now Premier, said it was an election commitment honoured.

“Queenslanders voted for it, we’ve delivered it and now Adult Crime, Adult Time will be law before Christmas,” he said.

A Coles worker is brought to an ambulance after being stabbed at a supermarket in Ipswich, with a 13-year-old boy later charged with attempted murder over the incident. Picture 7News

Unfortunately it took just one month to unravel, with the horrific stabbing of a Coles worker at Yamanto Central Shopping Centre in Ipswich on January 13. A 13-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder.

Queenslanders subsequently learned, to their surprise, that attempted murder was not included in the Adult Crime, Adult Time laws. Or other serious offences like rape and arson.

These are extraordinary omissions, given what the public were led to believe. And also given what was happening on the ground – as the government passed its Making Queensland Safer Laws in December, police laid 10 charges of rape, four charges of kidnapping and three of arson against children.

Mr Crisafulli and his ministers now say the laws passed in December were just a first tranche, with more to follow. Look very closely and they were indeed saying such things – Mr Crisafulli said it was a “first strike back” against the youth crime crisis – but statements crowing the Bill delivered on the government’s “promise to turn the tide on the youth crime crisis by Christmas” gave a different impression.

Premier David Crisafulli. Picture: Lachie Millard.

We should not be so surprised though. Adult Crime Adult Time was a simplistic slogan for a problem that is anything but simple and cannot be quickly solved.

Former Queensland Law Society President Bill Potts told The Courier Mail the stabbing at Ipswich was the first evidence of the failure of the new government’s “sloganeering criminal legislation attempt”.

“If adult crime, adult time, worked as a deterrent, then this offence would have never occurred,” he said.

“It demonstrates the paucity of logic and the paucity of effectiveness.

“The second thing is this, the reason why it’s ineffective is that 13-year-olds do not sit around in the parks of Yamanto questioning themselves as to whether they’ll go and commit a crime because they are familiar with David Crisafulli’s rubric that they’re going to serve adult time.”

So have the electors of this great state been sold a pup?

Not necessarily.

The government has always known real change would take a lot longer. On Monday Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber invited expressions of interest for an “expert legal panel” to provide advice on the next stages of Youth Justice Act reforms, with panellists to be appointed for an initial period of 12 months.

“Unravelling a decade of weak youth crime laws is a process, but we must reform our youth crime laws and this is the next step in delivering on that,” Ms Gerber said.

This does not speak to the quick solutions that some people seem to have expected, but no matter, more time is needed. Most people are no fools, they know youth crime can’t be solved in six weeks. Not even in 200 days.

But if there is no noticeable turn-around in the next few years, if the carnage continues and innocent people continue to pay the price, then the backlash could be merciless.

There is no question that the public expects real change. Time is ticking.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as The biggest problem with ‘adult crime, adult time’