The Queensland premier says breach of bail will be reintroduced for young offenders in the state, despite her government removing it as an offence for children in 2015 and heavily criticising the LNP for adopting it as a policy.
Annastacia Palaszczuk said breach of bail would be among a raft of law changes introduced to state parliament tomorrow in a bid to crack down on serious, repeat young offenders.
"In the spirit of bipartisanship, the government will be adopting breach of bail," she said.
"Once again we have listened to the community, and we want to work together … in the best interest of the people of this state."
Ms Palaszczuk said a petition that had gathered more than 150,000 signatures and called for the reintroduction of breach of bail as an offence was also a key reason for the policy backflip.
"We've listened to the community and we've responded," she said.
"Community safety is paramount. The public has been talking about this and this is a listening government."
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli on Sunday announced three proposed changes to combat youth crime, declaring Queenslanders had "run out of patience" with the current system.
The LNP had been pushing for breach of bail to be reintroduced as an offence since 2020.
In 2015, the Palaszczuk government dumped breach of bail as an offence after it was introduced by the former LNP government.
In June last year, Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman was highly critical of the law's success and of the LNP for supporting the offence's return.
"Breach of bail did nothing to reduce crime," she said in parliament.
"Only 185 juvenile offenders were convicted of the offence. Of these, 90 per cent reoffended within 12 months and 94 per cent reoffended within two years.
"What is even more embarrassing is that the Children's Court of Queensland held that the offence of committing an offence whilst on bail was flawed.
"It did not enable a juvenile to be punished because, if the young person had already been convicted of an offence, it breached section 16 of the Criminal Code, double punishment.
"Even the Children's Court has said this was the most flawed offence they have seen."
Deputy opposition leader Jarrod Bleijie said the premier should apologise for changing the laws when her government came to office.
"The opposition have been calling for breach of bail for well over two years now," he said.
"We've said this is a huge part of the reform of youth justice.
"We will not let the Palaszczuk government get away with the fact that in 2015 they got rid of breach of bail, they brought back detention as a last resort, and we have seen a cohort of young offenders in the last eight year terrorising our communities."
Premier says entire cabinet now endorses change
When questioned about comments made previously by Labor MPs about the policy not working, Ms Palaszczuk responded that her entire cabinet had endorsed reintroducing it and that more detail would be released tomorrow.
Police Minister Mark Ryan, who in the past described the LNP's push to reintroduce of breach of bail as "a political stunt", said this was proof the government was taking greater action over youth crime.
"Police have powers to enforce bail conditions but there's also a piece to be said around sanctions or consequences in the criminal law for breaching bail conditions," he said.
On the weekend, in response to the LNP's youth crime policy announcement, Tourism Minister Sterling Hinchliffe said it "really just reiterates that David Crisafulli is just a mini-me Campbell Newman".
'Race to the bottom'
Justice Reform Initiative executive director Mindy Sotiri said the decision from the state government was very concerning and urged political parties to introduce policies based on evidence.
"It is deeply alarming that the Queensland government is now deliberately going backwards in its approach to youth justice by reintroducing breach of bail as an offence," she said in a statement.
"The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that the threat of harsher penalties, including breach of bail as an offence, does not reduce crime.
"All this will accomplish is a further increase in the number of children in prison at enormous cost to taxpayers and with devastating impact on those children's life trajectories.
"It now appears that Queensland's leaders are set on a race to the bottom, instead of implementing rational policies based on the evidence of what actually works to reduce crime and improve community safety."
Previously, Terry O'Gorman from the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties described the opposition's breach of bail proposal as a "gimmick".
He said the Children's Court had the power to deny bail to youths who were already on bail and it did so regularly.
"This is game-playing by the opposition," he said.
"They're trying to jump on the law-and-order bandwagon in order to falsely paint a picture that youths never suffer a consequence for breach of bail."
New reforms targeting youth offenders were announced by the premier several weeks ago after the death of Emma Lovell, who was allegedly stabbed in the chest by two teenagers on Boxing Day.
Those changes, which include more severe punishments for violent offenders like increasing the maximum penalty for car thefts, are set to be introduced to parliament tomorrow.
Ms Palaszczuk said there would be a two-week consultation period for the new youth justice laws before they come before Parliament again for debate.
Cabinet today also approved $42 million package for a specialist Queensland police squad to deliver improved community safety measures.
"This means the police flying squad will be able to go to hot spots around the state as well as [conduct] high-viability patrols," Ms Palaszczuk said.
An extra 30 full-time positions will be added to the police squad, which will partner with the youth justice department to respond to youth crime.
