The Queensland Liberal National party opposition has vowed to remove the principle of detention as a last resort from the Youth Justice Act before year’s end if it wins the state election.
Speaking in Townsville on Tuesday, the LNP leader, David Crisafulli, revealed more detail about the party’s “Making Queensland safer laws” and accused Labor of having a “conga line of crises”.
Crisafulli said the LNP was “determined” to remove detention as a last resort, allow victims and their families to attend court and ensure victims were automatically “opted-in” to updates about the justice process.
“An LNP government would make sure the rights of victims come first before the rights of offenders,” the opposition leader said.
“We will be making sure victims are front and centre … It’s rewriting the act to put victims first, it’s giving victims visibility … and opening courts to let the sunshine in.”
The shadow minister for youth justice, Laura Gerber, said the LNP would ensure judges were required to give more consideration to the impact of offending on a victim’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Asked if the party would consider mandatory minimum sentencing, Crisafulli said the party would “listen to Queenslanders” and flagged more policy announcements to come.
The measure of detention as a last resort for children is enshrined in international law, including in the United Nations’ convention on the rights of the child, which Australia has ratified.
The premier, Steven Miles, has previously labelled the LNP policy “incredibly dangerous” and said it would harden children and make them more likely to re-offend.
The Labor party introduced the legal provision of detention as a last resort to the act in 2016. But on Monday, Miles softened his stance, saying the government would consider adopting the LNP policy if a youth justice committee recommended it.
“That’s certainly not our intention, but we have a select committee at the moment so we will see what they recommend,” he said.
“We will consider whatever they recommend.”
The bipartisan youth justice select committee, chaired by independent MP Sandy Bolton, is expected to deliver its interim report next month.
Miles on Monday promised new laws before the middle of the year which will include improving media access to youth justice court proceedings.
The premier also criticised the LNP for “politicising community safety for their own benefit” after the party rolled out television ads about youth crime this week.
The weakening of Labor’s stance comes after the party backflipped and overrode the state’s Human Rights Act to make breach of bail an offence for children.
Labor’s adoption of the LNP policy more than a year ago did not quieten talk from the tabloid media or the opposition about the state’s “youth crime crisis”.
