Youth crime too tough for Labor

13 November 2023

The Queensland Labor Government have confirmed they won’t be coming out with any new strategies to try and reduce youth crime as Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer lays the blame on the judiciary for failing to adequately impose Parliament’s laws.

In Townsville on the weekend, a young mother was injured after she fought back against an intruder armed with an axe and another assailant who was armed with a knife. It was 10am in morning when the incident occurred and the mother, fearing for her baby’s safety, suffered an injury to her leg during the altercation as she fought back to get the intruder to leave.

The incident happened in Burdell, only streets away from Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Deputy Leader and Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto’s home.

Mr Dametto said he was out mowing his lawn shortly before 11am and saw the police patrolling his street.

“At that time on a Sunday morning it didn’t occur to me that a serious incident had just unfolded, I thought police might have been in the area following up on past incidents,” he said.

“Once I realised what had happened and that it was only around the corner from me, I was beyond angry. We all have our roller doors up doing chores and tasks around our homes on the weekend and now we can’t even do that anymore. It’s sickening.

“Thanks to the Labor Government, we’re now living like we’re in Johannesburg, paying the price if we aren’t battened down inside our own homes.

“We’ve got youth offenders that now walk into people’s homes with weapons in broad daylight and our Premier and Youth Justice Minister have all but thrown their hands in the air and given up, cowardly blaming the courts for not doing their job.

“In any aspect of law, if the courts aren’t interpreting the legislation the way parliament intended it to be, then it is up to the parliament to address that and rewrite the laws to make them clearer and ensure they are applied as intended.

“To hear our elected Labor leaders stepping back and saying there’s nothing more they can do is a cop out!

“Parliament is sitting this week, we should be seeing a bill introduced to rectify the parts of the Youth Justice Act and the Criminal Code they say the courts aren’t interpreting properly.

“Here at KAP, we’ve put our solutions for youth crime on the table with our Relocation Sentencing policy and so far that’s been ignored by Labor for whatever reason.

“Maybe Relocation Sentencing is too tough and Labor doesn’t like the idea of violating the rights of offenders. KAP stands up for the rights of victims. They should be the paramount consideration here, not the callous and violent offenders, I don’t care how old they are.

“The weekend’s incident in Burdell could have ended very differently, it’s only by sheer luck and the help of quick thinking bystanders who acted that this attack didn’t turn into another death attributed to Queensland youth crime.

“The Premier has failed Queenslanders. The blood is on her hands and the axe is at her feet, because it is under her watch and her government that this has been allowed to happen.”

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