Breaching a bail condition will be a crime for children in Queensland as part of the state government’s second major youth crime crackdown in two years.
The controversial change comes after a spate of high-profile homicides in the past three months involving offenders under the age of 18, including the fatal stabbing of mother Emma Lovell at her home north of Brisbane, and the killing of a man with a disability who was waiting for a taxi in Toowoomba.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says making breaching bail an offence is part of a number of harsher penalties and more funding for intervention programs, which will be tabled in parliament on Tuesday.
“We will use the full force of the law to target the small cohort of serious repeat offenders that currently pose a threat to community safety,” she told parliament.
“When these young people re-offend time and again, we need the police to catch them and we need the courts to do their job: they have the resources, they have the laws, they have the tools.”
The opposition is accusing Labor of a major backflip in adopting a signature Liberal National Party policy, which the government has continually dismissed for more than two years.
However, Police Minister Mark Ryan said the previous LNP government had only seen young people charged with breaching bail if they committed a crime while on bail.
He said Labor’s laws would be harder and bring the bail rules for children in line with those for adults.
“It’s time for a reality check,” Mr Ryan told parliament.
“The previous administration had a law that made it an offence to commit a crime while on bail, but it was not a breach of bail law, breaching bail conditions was not an offence. The laws we are introducing are much stronger.”
The government will also increase prison terms for car thieves, slap penalties on people who boast about crime on social media and ensure judges take the histories of child offenders into account when deciding on bail applications.
Almost $10 million has also been earmarked to speed up the sentencing of children before courts in Brisbane, Townsville, Southport and Cairns.
The same amount will be spent trialling 20,000 car engine immobilisers in Townsville, Cairns and Mount Isa.
There will also be a new police flying squad that can be rapidly deployed into problem areas.
It’s the second time in two years the Labor government brought in laws aimed at cracking down on youth crime after a suite of measures were introduced in April 2021.
The Justice Reform Initiative has criticised both major parties over the breach of bail policy, which it said will not reduce youth crime but will increase the number of children in prison.
“It now appears that Queensland’s leaders are set on a race to the bottom, instead of implementing rational policies based on the evidence of what actually works to reduce crime and improve community safety,” it said in a statement on Monday.
The youth justice bill will be probed by a parliamentary committee for two weeks before returning to parliament for a final vote, which is expected to pass as Labor has a majority.
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