Question Time live blog: Premier unveils youth justice reforms in parliament

The Palaszczuk Government has pledged to transparently publish the rate of youth reoffending, Indigenous young people in detention and the proportion of serious repeat offenders - with the goal of driving these numbers down - as a direct result of the Enough is Enough campaign.

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The Palaszczuk Government has pledged to openly publish key performance indicators experts say are crucial to driving down teen crime, as Queensland’s new youth justice legislation was introduced to parliament.

On Tuesday every daily newspaper in Queensland joined forces for the Enough is Enough campaign, calling on the government and the Opposition to transparently publish the rate of youth reoffending, Indigenous young people in detention, and the proportion of serious repeat offenders – with the goal of driving these numbers down.

Just hours later on the first day of the campaign, a spokesman said the government was “happy to report on the outcomes” outlined – measures advocates described as “realistic and achievable”. Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and the LNP also threw their support behind the campaign, with Mr Crisafulli he would “commit to do those three, as well as others”.

“But I think the point of difference that shows we are fair dinkum – my commitment is to have it done with a central Minister for Open Data,” he said.

“What that does is it stops guidelines and calculations moving … to make sure that the data is exactly the same as before, so the there’s been no washing of the data.

“Then the other Ministers who are accountable for each of the deliverables, are also responsible for the numbers.”

The pledge to publish the accountability measures came as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk issued an apology to Queenslanders who had been victims of teen crime as parliament returned – a day largely dominated by the government’s highly-touted changes to the Youth Justice Act.

Victims of crime and youth justice advocates sat in the parliament’s public gallery as the Premier detailed the new legislation and $332m in additional funding, saying the changes had been made in “careful consideration”.

 

The legislation followed the announcement of a 10-point youth justice plan days after the alleged murder of mum-of-two Emma Lovell at her North Lakes home on Boxing Day.

“Our government is determined that all Queenslanders and all communities are safe. Safety must always come first,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

As well as increasing the maximum penalty for stealing a car to ten years, and further punishment for criminals who boast about their crimes on social media, the Premier also announced a range of new youth justice funding.

It included $15m to help senior citizens install additional security, $9m for enhanced support for victims of crime, and $10m for a vehicle immobiliser trial for Cairns, Townsville and Mt Isa.A further $100m will be spent on enhancing youth justice programs, including intensive case management in Townsville and Cairns, and an expansion of the program across Brisbane, Logan, Toowoomba, Moreton, Rockhampton, Ipswich and the Gold Coast.

There would be an additional $66m for proactive policing, including a $25m injection for high visibility police patrols, and additional funding for social media monitoring and engagement.

Youth co-responder teams will also be boosted, and $17m will be spent on expanding “flying squads” – expert youth justice workers to partner with police to target high risk offending.

Two new detention centres will also be built, while a trial of electronic monitoring devices – which have only ever been fitted to 8 teenagers – would be expanded for two years, with the age lowered from 16 to 15-year-olds. 

“We are introducing tough new laws and increasing our investment in youth justice after careful consideration by our government,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“These new initiatives are based in evidence and they follow feedback from the community, police and other important stakeholders.”

Ms Palaszczuk, Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, Police Minister Mark Ryan (pictured) and Youth Justice Leanne Linard were pressured over the apparent backflip on the breach of bail policy.

 

Specific measures were introduced aimed at targeting repeat, hardcore young offenders – including strengthening conditional release orders, a new declaration of serious repeat offenders and expanding the number of offences with a presumption against bail.

Ms Palaszczuk said addressing the issue of spiralling youth crime in Queensland was “beyond politics”.

“And we are adopting a bipartisan approach in proposing to make a breach of bail condition an offence for young offenders, just as it is for adult offenders,” she said.

Both Ms Palaszczuk, Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, Police Minister Mark Ryan and Youth Justice Leanne Linard were pressured during a fiery Question Time over the apparent backflip on the breach of bail policy announced on Monday – after saying multiple times publicly the policy didn’t work.

Ms Palszczuk told parliament, “it is important to note that this is different to the amendment brought in by the previous Newman Government which was found to be flawed and breached the rule against double punishment.”

However, while the new law does differ from Campbell Newman’s earlier policy, the proposed changes to the Bail Act pushed by the government on Tuesday are eerily similar to an amendment put forward by the LNP in 2021 and pushed for by Mr Crisafulli since.

The faces of ten victims who died at the hands of young criminals in the past two years.

During Question Time Ms Palaszczuk was also asked by Mr Crisafulli whether she would “apologise to victims of crime for the changes to the Youth Justice Act since 2015?”

Ms Palaszczuk said “of course we apologise to victims of crime” – saying “that is why we are taking the course of actions that I have announced today”.

“Now can I say to the Leader of the Opposition that the challenge now is will the Opposition support these measures? Now is the time and now is the time for us to put politics aside.”

Mr Ryan introduced the new Strengthening Community Safety Bill, which will now be considered by the economics and governance committee – a process expected to take two weeks. 

“This bill contributes to addressing those concerns and coupled with a combined investment package of more than $322n focused on prevention, rehabilitation and support measures, (and) will provide a stronger foundation from which to make that change,” the Minister said.

But Opposition Deputy Leader Jarrod Bleijie slammed the lack of debate on the youth justice laws this week, saying he was “distressed and angry”.

“I accept the point about committees and consultation – but that wasn’t the commitment the Premier made,” he told parliament.“The Premier promised Queenslanders they (the laws) were so urgent, they would be introduced and passed this week.”

QUESTION TIME HAS NOW FINISHED. FOLLOW OUR  LIVE BLOG BELOW FOR UPDATES ON QUEENSLAND'S YOUTH CRIME CRISIS 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during Question Time at Parliament House. Picture: Dan Peled

But the Greens have slammed the new legislation, with MP Michael Berkman calling it a “reheated LNP policy” that would make communities less safe.

“Labor hasn’t just backflipped on breach of bail; they’ve come up with an even worse solution than Campbell Newman,” he said.

“They don’t care about community safety, all they care about is a headline. Queenslanders now know Labor will abandon their supposed principles for political clout, even where they concede they’re breaching Queensland’s Human Rights Act.

“Queensland is locking up more kids than any other state and it isn’t working.  

“Instead of reheating old LNP policies, Labor should fix the basics in this state like the housing crisis, underfunded state schools and a strained healthcare system.  

“The funding for evidence-based programs that actually improve safety is dwarfed by spending on new youth prisons, and is completely undermined by taking our laws backwards in an attempt to outdo the LNP.”

Meanwhile, the  organiser of a petition created in memory of North Lakes mother Emma Lovell visited parliament this morning to protest Queensland’s youth crime laws, saying the Premier's latest announcement is “set up to fail”.

Brisbane grandmother, Julie West, started the petition Emma’s Law after the mother-of two died at her North Lakes home on Boxing Day after an alleged home invasion.

Protest and petition organiser Julie West outside Parliament House in Brisbane. Picture: Andreas Nicola

“While yesterday was great (the Premier) announcing bringing back breach of bail, I can’t help feeling like it’s been set up to fail, because she didn’t also take away detention at last resort,” she said

“Because one without the other is counterintuitive.

“So if these kids actually do come before the courts under breach of bail, if the judge can’t do anything or doesn’t actually give them … something to deter them from doing it, then they’re just going to be released again to do it all again.

“So it’s got to have some absolute repercussions at the other end of it, if you breach the bail, then what are the repercussions to sort of deter these kids from doing it in the first place.”

Ms West commended the Enough is Enough campaign in today’s Courier-Mail and regional newspapers.

“I think this government needs total accountability. These are really serious crimes. So yeah, I want accountability."

Originally published as Question Time live blog: Premier unveils youth justice reforms in parliament

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