Three high-profile alleged deaths at the hands of teens led Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet to sign off on a bill,introduced to parliament last week,that was largely pitched as a crackdown to keep serious repeat young offenders in detention amid questioned calls of a “crisis”.
Just 2½ days were given for submissions to the suite of proposed measures ahead of three public hearings this week.
The bipartisan economics and governance committee,ultimately controlled by the government with the casting vote of chair Linus Power – Labor’s MP for Logan – will take consultation on board and report back by March 10 on whether the bill should be passed,altered,or dumped.
After ahearing in Brisbane on Tuesday,the committee travelled to Cairns on Wednesday. There,it heard from Timothy Grau – a former policy adviser to state and federal governments who now works as a defence barrister in the city – about thetraumatic backgrounds ofmany young offenders.
“We’ve been failing them for decades:all governments,all parliaments,all parties have failed. Not only have we failed these young people,we’ve failed every victim of their offending ... by ignoring the science of youth crime,” Grau said.
He went on to reference the multitude ofstate,national and international reports and inquiries demonstrating that significant focus and funding was needed around early intervention rather than more jails and policing.