Des Houghton: Time to make parents pay for the crimes of their wayward kids

If police find primary school children running wild in the middle of the night, should their parents be prosecuted for failing in their duty to safeguard them, asks Des Houghton. HAVE YOUR SAY

If police find primary school children running wild in the middle of the night, should their parents be prosecuted for failing in their duty to safeguard them?

Should dead-beat parents be held responsible, in part, for their children’s crimes?

And should those same neglectful parents be made to pay for the damage to public property caused by their children in crime sprees? Of course they should.

But it will not happen, I am told, because it is in breach of United Nations conventions.

International humanitarian law forbids anyone being punished for crimes they did not commit themselves. What a shame.

There may be another way.

I believe mothers and fathers who have lost control of a child through bad parenting should lose their parenting payments.

I’m sure the same deadbeat parents are the ones claiming up to $288.82 a fortnight for a child aged 13 to 15 for family tax benefits A or B, depending on their circumstances. There are different rates for solo parents and younger children. Throwing in a baby bonus or two can make having children a lucrative business model for some.

Parents should be made to pay for the damage caused by their children who smash and destroy and wound on their crime benders.

The trouble is there is no way for a state government to insist that federal social security payments be docked.

Docking welfare payments would be a powerful incentive to encourage indifferent parents to sharpen their parenting skills.

The trail of destruction caused by children – and the hurt the children inflict upon themselves and others – was laid bare in parliament this week.

There were some intense debates about juvenile crime and the childcare crisis. Both are linked by dysfunctional families.

Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm gave a comprehensive rundown of failures in the child services system.

She told the House the cost of caring for children in state care had jumped to $766m last year, an average of $300,000 a child.

Premier David Crisafulli announced a commission of inquiry by Paul Anastassiou KC, a former Federal Court judge.

He spoke well: “This inquiry is as much about keeping the community safe as it is about giving kids hope. There is no coincidence that we have a youth crime crisis at the same time we have a broken child safety system.”

Originally published as Des Houghton: Time to make parents pay for the crimes of their wayward kids