Advocates say system is broken and government needs to work with local community to support young people
They came to call for change.
Among the 700 protestors outside Western Australia’s Banksia Hill Juvenile detention centre on Sunday afternoon was Lee-Anne Mason.
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Continue reading...Indigenous community says the plan to meet with Torin O’Brien only legitimises his offensive views
First Nations people in central Queensland say the state government is inflaming local tensions by pushing ahead with plans to meet with the former leader of a far-right “patriots” group, who was booted off Facebook after leading a mob to surround the Rockhampton home of an Indigenous teenager.
Guardian Australia on Tuesday revealed that the ringleader of the group, Torin O’Brien, is the former president of a group that regularly posted offensive anti-Islam content online.
Continue reading...Experts say incarceration only increases risk of offending after Queensland police union president’s comments
Annastacia Palaszczuk and criminologists have rebuffed a call by Queensland’s police union president for serious youth offenders to be treated as adults, after three women were killed in a crash in Maryborough.
A 13-year-old boy is facing three charges of dangerous driving causing death after allegedly stealing a Mercedes from a Maryborough home at 10.45pm on Sunday.
Continue reading...Paramedics attending crash scene recognised nurse who was killed while on her way home from work
A Queensland MP has paid tribute to one of his former students who was killed in a multi-vehicle crash that saw a 13-year-old boy charged with three deaths.
Two women and a 17-year-old girl died, while another woman was in a critical condition in hospital, after the three-car crash in Maryborough at about 10.45pm on Sunday.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
Continue reading...Jaclyn Symes urges other jurisdictions to follow state after announcing ‘staged approach’ to ensure support services are in place
Victoria’s attorney general has acknowledged that plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 “falls short” of expectations from First Nations groups but described the move as a “first step” and urged other states to follow suit.
Jaclyn Symes confirmed the government will introduce legislation later this year to raise the age from 10 to 12, with no exceptions, which will come into effect in late 2024. It will then be increased to 14 by 2027.
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Continue reading...Youth involved in late-night altercation in Dalby says he feels he was targeted because of the colour of his skin
An off-duty police constable has been filmed head-butting a 14-year-old Indigenous teenager in the face in a late-night altercation outside a McDonald’s in regional Queensland.
The state’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, said an Ethical Standards Command investigation has been launched, describing the officer’s actions as “inappropriate”.
Continue reading...New laws include the overriding of the Human Rights Act to allow children to be charged for breaching bail
The Queensland government’s controversial youth crime laws have been passed in parliament despite strong opposition by human rights advocates and experts who warn they are ineffective and will result in more children incarcerated.
The laws include overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to make breach of bail an offence for children. They will also expand an electronic monitoring trial for children as young as 15 and provide additional funding of $9m to assist victims of crime.
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Continue reading...Legal groups also criticise the push to override the state’s Human Rights Act to create the offence
Experts say there is zero evidence to support Annastacia Palaszczuk’s controversial decision to pursue criminal charges against Queensland children who breach bail.
Human rights organisations have also delivered scathing criticisms of the government’s bid to override the state’s Human Rights Act to legislate the offence for children, warning that it likely won’t reduce offending.
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Where the parties stand
So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.
We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.
Continue reading...Queensland police charge 18-year-old woman with multiple firearm-related offences ahead of community safety forum
A woman and a teenage girl have been injured and an 18-year-old charged with a string of offences after an alleged shooting in Toowoomba, ahead of a community forum at which tensions over a perceived youth crime crisis are expected to come to a head.
The Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, the youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, and the police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, are expected to attend a community safety forum at Toowoomba’s Empire theatre on Wednesday night.
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Continue reading...Steven Miles said a magistrate’s decision to release children locked in Townsville watch house was ‘a media stunt’
Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, has been accused of engaging in a “disgraceful” breach of the separation of powers for claiming the safety of residents was being “held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices”.
At a press conference on Friday, Miles said a decision by a Townsville magistrate to release several children being held on remand in the local watch house was a “media stunt”, prompting fierce pushback from civil liberties veteran Terry O’Gorman.
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Continue reading...Eoin Mac Giolla Ri in a separate case last month said children could be exposed to ‘drunk, abusive, psychotic’ detainees
A Queensland magistrate who previously raised concerns about children being held in “harsh” conditions in adult watch houses has granted bail to a teenage girl after saying he was “conscious” that she may otherwise end up in one.
Mount Isa magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri last week said the 15-year-old girl would probably be held for an “extended” period in a watch house if bail was refused, as all three of the state’s youth detention centres were at capacity. Bail was initially refused for the girl on Friday, and the matter adjourned until Monday, in the hope that the parties could find a solution as to her placement. She was subsequently granted bail on Monday.”
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Continue reading...Online posts urge violence against residents in care home after it was described as a place for ‘youth offenders’
Children living in a Queensland residential care home were the subject of death threats on social media – including calls for neighbours to “storm the house” and “hang whoever is inside” – after media reports incorrectly claimed the premises was a halfway house for young criminals.
The head of the Queensland family and child commission, Scott Twyford, said last week he was “deeply concerned” at public sentiment which called for more punitive responses to youth crime in the face of clear evidence that “tough” approaches don’t work.
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Continue reading...Cheryl Scanlon says youth crime is ‘complex’ while police minister says number of young people denied bail is proof of tough stance
The Queensland government is facing pressure to tighten its already strict bail laws after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged murder of 41-year-old mother Emma Lovell.
Lovell, originally from Suffolk in the UK, was stabbed in the chest at her home in North Lakes in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day, during an alleged home invasion.
Continue reading...Police minister Mark Ryan says nation-leading incarceration rates reflect what the community wants
Queensland children could be pleading guilty to offences they didn’t commit, a new report suggests, with the state’s police minister saying its nation-leading rates of youth incarceration reflect the “community’s expectation”.
The comments from Mark Ryan came after he released an eight-month-old report, assessing new bail laws designed to enable the Palaszczuk government’s “crackdown on youth crime”, late on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Government says authorities will refer children under 12 and their families to parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending
The Northern Territory government is seeking to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 12 years old.
The Labor government introduced the legislation to parliament on Thursday, saying authorities would now refer children under the age of 12 and their families to intensive parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending.
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Continue reading...Matt Bach has written to UN subcommittee about the ‘systematic’ isolation of youth detainees he says contravenes international law
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Victorian Liberal MP Matt Bach has written to the United Nations subcommittee on the prevention of torture, urging them to investigate the “systematic” use of isolation in the state’s youth justice facilities during an upcoming visit.
The subcommittee is set to visit Australia from 16-27 October to inspect places of detention and examine the treatment of detainees.
Continue reading...Experts say Alesha’s killer, Aaron Campbell, is ‘not a one-off’ – and more can be done to prevent similar crimes
Since Aaron Campbell received a life sentence last month for the brutal rape and murder of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail, the reverberations from his crimes have continued as the public and professionals struggle to come to terms with what the trial judge, Lord Matthews, described as “some of the wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard”.
Related: Why was Alesha MacPhail killed? Perhaps we should stop asking | Libby Brooks
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