Kylie Lang: ‘Reset’ camps the best option we’ve got after Labor failures

Short of ripping kids out of dysfunctional homes or stopping unfit adults from breeding, we have to find a way to make communities safer, and David Crisafulli’s camps for wayward kids are better than anything Labor has done, writes Kylie Lang.

David Crisafulli’s camps for wayward children are no panacea for the youth crime epidemic but, coupled with other initiatives announced this week, they’re better than what nine-plus years of Labor have given us – which is stuff-all.

Predictably, Steven Miles has canned the idea. The Opposition Leader is gunning for his job.

A youth advocacy group has questioned the efficacy of the three-week camps.

This too is par for the course when the softly-softly approach that has justified the group’s pay cheques has produced diddly squat.

As it stands now, more and more Queenslanders are living in fear.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that significant societal change requires intervention from an early age – and the longer and deeper the intervention, the better.

However, short of ripping kids out of dysfunctional homes, which no political party would be game to attempt, or stopping unfit adults from breeding altogether, we have to find other ways to make our communities safer.

For too long, juvenile offenders have been pandered to by the courts and others who seem afraid to offend the offenders, while the rest of us, including frustrated police officers, are hung out to dry.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli announces the Regional Reset program, a $50 million, four-year plan to help reduce youth crime in Queensland. Picture: Brendan Radke

People near me have been robbed at knifepoint by a trio of youths undeterred by security cameras, high fences and two large dogs – and my neighbours and I wonder when we’ll be next.

This is unacceptable.

Sadly, there are Queenslanders in worse circumstances.

Take heartbroken father Russell Field. In what world would this former builder put up his hand to be a politician?

A world in which his son Matt, pregnant partner Kate Leadbetter and their unborn baby Miles were mowed down by a teenager in a stolen car in 2021.

Come October 26, Mr Field will be hoping to defeat Capalaba MP Don Brown, the bloke who described youth crime as a “media beat-up”.

Mr Field is running for the LNP after becoming fed up with Labor’s ineptitude. He wants tougher laws.

Who can blame him?

Steven Miles didn’t even know who Mr Field was at a rally in April, and the Premier actually giggled when a reporter asked him about youth crime in February.

As for the 17-year-old drunk and high driver of the car that struck Mr Field’s loved ones, he was jailed for 10 years but only ordered to serve 60 per cent of his sentence and is due for release in 2027.

Meanwhile, the Field family and countless other victims of our wet-lettuce “justice” system get a life sentence of grief.

New LNP candidate for Capalaba Russell Field at Alexandra Hills. Picture: Lachie Millard

David Crisafulli’s announcement that the LNP would set up voluntary “reset” camps for troubled 10- to 15-year-olds – a spend of $50m over four years on nine regional programs – is to be applauded.

“The focus will be on education, discipline, counselling, training and employment, and above all, consequences for actions, good and bad,” Mr Crisafulli said.

The current Youth Justice Minister, Di Farmer, has previously endorsed early intervention programs targeting these precise life skills – but now that we’re two weeks out from the election, the LNP idea is deemed a dud?

Katherine Hayes, chief executive of the Youth Advocacy Centre, says a three-week program could be too short to produce lasting change.

She could well be right, but I can tell you one thing for certain: Queenslanders have had a gutful of people in positions of influence pussy-footing around youth crime.

So bring on the LNP’s Right Track program, which also includes four government-funded crime prevention schools and a victims’ advocacy service.

Too much precious time has been wasted.

For the last word on these controversial camps, I’ll pass you to a Courier-Mail reader who wrote this week: “A few years ago I ran a six-day sports intervention program in Townsville. Twenty at-risk youth, 13-14 years. Rugby league theme. Day 1 was hard … but by day 4 the youth were absolutely thriving. Boys on bail for armed robbery were waiting for us to get up in the morning to chat and were making us coffees. They were engaged, cleaning, training, responding. People who continually knock these ideas need to have a look at themselves. These programs are not a one-stop solution but they are a start. Give them a go!”

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
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Originally published as Kylie Lang: ‘Reset’ camps the best option we’ve got after Labor failures