‘They see crime as a way of winning seats’: Miles slams LNP youth plan
Premier Steven Miles says the LNP is exploiting youth crime with “another slick four-word slogan” to win seats while ignoring evidence about how to successfully combat the issue.
“They see crime as a way of winning seats,” Miles said on Monday, as advocacy groups raised serious concerns about the LNP’s plan to treat juveniles convicted of serious crimes as adult offenders.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli used the annual LNP state convention on Sunday to spruik his bold plan, 111 days out from the state election on October 26.
Youths found guilty of crimes such as murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and dangerous operation and unlawful use of a motor vehicle would be sentenced as adults under a Crisafulli-led, LNP government.
“We will restore consequences for actions for young criminals – adult crime, adult time,” he said.
Crisafulli said the harsher penalties would help put victims’ rights before the rights of offenders.
“It can’t continue the way things are, and ‘adult crime, adult time’ sends the message,” he told Channel Nine’s Today show on Monday.
Voice for Victims organiser Trudy Reading said the advocacy group supported harsher sentencing for serious crimes and had been campaigning for this since the group was formed last year.
“There’s obviously a raft of other things that we have been recommending to the government and opposition to help curb the youth crime … but a first step is definitely the adult time for adult crime [as] a way to hopefully deter young people from offending in the first place.”
Reading said most victims the group engaged with supported the measure as a deterrence but she emphasised it should not be enacted in isolation.
“There also needs to be early intervention and rehabilitation programs that work. At the moment, that’s where we see the biggest gap from the government.”
But Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall told the ABC the proposal “flies in the face of all evidence about how to successfully combat crime”.
McDougall said Queensland was already the subject of international attention because of the conditions children in detention were placed under. He said the proposal threatened to further tarnish the state’s reputation.
“The proposal to treat children as young as 10 years old — the majority of which are First Nations — in the same way as we would sentence an adult, flies in the face of all evidence about how to successfully combat crime and puts our international reputation as a modern democracy at stake,” he said.
Queensland Law Society president Rebecca Fogerty said harsher sentences in an already struggling detention system would lead to “more overcrowding, more violence, more lockdowns, less education and less rehabilitation” and would compound the issues that give rise to serious repeat offending.
“Research shows that punishment and imprisonment fails to deter and, in fact, increases crime,” she said.
Youth Advocacy Centre chief Katherine Hayes reinforced the need to offer rehabilitative services and address the root causes of youth offending, which include systematic issues such as domestic and family violence, drug use and homelessness.
“Serious repeat offenders aren’t deterred by jail time ... Unless they are rehabilitated and have support to engage productively post-release, we will continue to see them offend as soon as they are let out,” Hayes said.
The Labor government’s policies to address youth crime have not been without criticism, but Miles remained steadfast they were moving in the right direction.
“We’ve only recently introduced [our] comprehensive community safety plan. There is early evidence in the data that it is working,” Miles said.
“Of course, there has to be consequences, but one that also supports victims and one that intervenes early and prevents crime before it occurs.”
The adult crime, adult time policy was championed by Russell Field, whose son Matthew was killed alongside partner Kate Leadbetter and their unborn child by a teenager driving a stolen car.
Field has advocated for stronger punishment that “acts as a deterrent”.