Qld election 2024: LNP’s reset camps ‘boot camps by another name’

A youth advocate has sunk the boot into the LNP’s plan to arrest juvenile crime, saying it’s a resurrection of a Newman-era policy.

The LNP would send wayward youths on three-week long “reset” camps as part of its early intervention crime plan.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, speaking at Edmonton in Cairns, revealed the LNP would spend $50m over four years to set up nine regional reset programs for kids on the brink of becoming embroiled in the justice system.

The programs, which are voluntary, would provide 24/7 intensive early intervention for trouble youths, with a stint lasting one to three weeks.

The children would be referred to the program by their parents, teachers, or by police when they are cautioned, with participation to happen before they become wholly embroiled in the justice system.

Children would need to be aged between 10 and 15 years old to qualify and will be able to do multiple stints of the program — which lasts between one and three weeks — if they’re not set straight the first time.

Some programs may involve a child staying on site throughout their stint.

There would be one regional reset program based each in Far North Queensland, North Queensland, Central Queensland, Gold Coast-Logan, Ipswich-Darling Downs, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay and Western Queensland.

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

“Examples include everything that can make a young person feel valued and stop going down a pathway of crime before they embark on that journey, skills like coding and technology, community volunteering, adventure sports, cultural programs, and a digital detox.”

Mr Crisafulli said the behaviour that could warrant a child being referred to the program would include truancy and vandalism.

Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes

Despite the program being voluntary, Mr Crisafulli was adamant the children — even those whose issue is skipping school — would turn up because it gave them hope.

Opposition youth justice spokeswoman Laura Gerber said the regional reset programs were intervention programs, not institutions.

“These are programs (that) might use exercise, they might use activities like canoeing they might use cultural activities to re-engage kids as the tool to reset their behaviour,” she said.

Premier Steven Miles argued the LNP’s reset camps were effectively akin to the boot camps run during the Campbell Newman era.

“If they don’t want to keep being compared to the government in 2012 they should stop looking like the government from 2012,” he said.

Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes welcomed the focus on early intervention, but questioned the effectiveness of the LNP’s plan.

“The only real way to reduce youth offending is to provide intensive and long-term support for the young person and their family while they are in the community,” she said.

“This can take years. A three-week intervention is unlikely to produce lasting changes, particularly if it is involuntary.

“ ‘Residential reset’ seems like a boot camp by another name, and boot camps were found to be ineffective when used by previous governments.”

Mr Crisafulli made the announcement at the Walker Road Sporting Precinct, home of the Southside Comets Football Club, which has been the target of eight break-ins in the last 12 months.

The club is within the electorate of Mulgrave, which was a Labor stronghold for more than a decade.

But the retirement of sitting member Curtis Pitt, one of the seven Labor MPs to withstand the Newman tide in 2012, has made the future of the seat uncertain.

Originally published as Qld election 2024: LNP’s reset camps ‘boot camps by another name’