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Melbourne hit by magnitude 4.6 earthquake
Melburnians were shaken by a magnitude 4.6 earthquake at 1.32am.
Continue reading...Child protection watchdog says distress at Kurlana Tapa caused by prolonged detention is leading to self-harm
Children are being locked in their cells for up to 23 consecutive hours partly due to staffing shortages at South Australia’s youth detention centre, with the system in crisis amid a spate of “shocking” self-harm incidents, the state’s guardian for young people says.
Shona Reid, the guardian and youth detention inspector, said children were becoming so distressed due to prolonged detention that they were harming themselves at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Staff shortages at Cleveland youth detention centre led to teenager being confined to his cell for more than 20 hours a day
An Aboriginal teenager with an intellectual disability was likely locked in solitary confinement for more than 500 days at Queensland’s troubled Cleveland youth detention centre, in a situation described to a court as a “major failure in our system”.
Michael*, now 19, spent more than two years on remand at the Townsville centre while the children’s court dealt with charges related to a violent sexual attack on a 16-year-old girl.
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Continue reading...Use of solitary confinement due to chronic staffing shortages at Cleveland detention centre has detrimental effect on children, advocates say
More than 60% of the workforce at the troubled Cleveland youth detention centre in north Queensland quit during the past three years, data obtained by Guardian Australia shows.
The figures supplied by the youth justice department show total staff numbers at the detention centre have declined since mid-2020, about the same time the state enacted laws designed to lock up more children.
Continue reading...Data released in both states suggest online posts may have contributed to a rise in certain types of crime
Social media platforms allowing teenagers to brag about crimes might be contributing to an increase in youth offending in Australia’s most populous states, Victorian police and New South Wales’ crime statistics agency say.
In Victoria, data from the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) released on Thursday reported that home burglaries committed by 10-to-14-year-olds increased by almost 87% in the 12 months to 31 March, compared with the prior year. This is despite youth offending being down by almost half, compared with a decade ago.
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Continue reading...Many children on remand who may be exonerated or not sentenced are pleading guilty to escape long periods of detention
Young people in Queensland are pleading guilty to offences they did not commit – or where there is little evidence to support charges – to avoid spending extreme periods on remand in the state’s buckling youth justice system, lawyers say.
Queensland has the nation’s largest youth prison population, and recent data obtained by Guardian Australia reveals 88% of children in detention centres and police watch houses were being held unsentenced.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: State Aboriginal Legal Service calls for end to ‘over-policing’ of Indigenous people
The proportion of Aboriginal people in prisons across New South Wales has reached an all-time high, prompting an urgent call from key groups for governments to end the “over-policing” of Indigenous communities.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) figures revealed Aboriginal people accounted for a record 29.7% of the state’s adult prison population in February, dipping slightly to 29.5% in March.
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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches
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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