A spokesperson for Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer has confirmed an update to the 2019-2023 strategy now won’t be finalised until “early next year”.
Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer has pointed to a parliamentary committee only convened in October as a reason for delays with the strategy.Matt Dennien
The update comes as the community service sector questioned why the strategy had been allowed to reach its expiry date without a replacement or consultation around one.
Last December,amid criticism for several “knee-jerk” responses to high-profile crimes,then-minister Leanne Linard’s office toldBrisbane Timesit would be.
Since then,the government has bypassed its own human rights laws to in contradiction to parts of the strategy and related 2019-21 action plan – also yet to be replaced.
Speaking to journalists before a major community sector meeting on Friday about the issue,Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh said the actions were confusing.
“A credible youth justice strategy should aim to keep the community safe and should also maintain community confidence,” she said.
“It is hard to understand how the Queensland Government can expect to maintain community confidence without a youth justice strategy in place.”
Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes called on the government to commit to publicly releasing the number of young people held in police watch houses each day over the summer and pressure on prison capacity is most acute.
Farmer’s spokesperson said the government has been doing work to develop a new strategy and action plan and had met with QCOSS and other stakeholders as recently as Wednesday.
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(Brisbane Timeshas asked a further question about whether the strategy and plan were explicitly discussed at the meeting,but was yet to receive a response.)
The spokesperson also said it would be “disingenuous” to ignore the work of the,only established by the parliament in October.
“As per the three-yearly update,the new strategy is expected to be finalised early next year,” they said,noting it would consider the committee’s work and audit office review of diversion programs.
“We will not pre-empt outcomes from the youth justice reform select committee or the Auditor-
General.”
The year-long committee expects to and identify possible solutions before early next year. The Auditor-General report is expected.
While overall youth offender rates have been long-declining,those being charged are accused of more offences – and those deemed “serious repeat offenders”.
After two weeks of initial public hearings and briefings, from two researchers has sought to lay out some possible reasons for this.
One,the subject to a recent study yet to be published,found a decline among younger age groups in the number being diverted by police for their first three offences.
Another suggested possible cause for the increased number of offences was a higher concentration of police resources on a smaller pool of young offenders,picking up and prosecuting more of their offending,“rather than this reflecting an increase in actual youth offending behaviour”.
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