Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think every member here cares passionately about youth justice, but it would not be unfair to say that there's rarely an opportunity for direct engagement from the Commonwealth government. I think it is now time to change. I think that all levels of government should play a role with youth justice, and I think Queensland may lead the way. We saw the Oatlands tragedy last year that shocked the nation. There were two tragedies: in my electorate on Australia Day and in my colleague's electorate in Thuringowa in January of this year. Both of them focused the attention of Queenslanders on the fact that the youth justice challenge nationwide is difficult to manage and, it is not unfair to say, under-resourced in many cases.

There are no guarantees of success, but I would have to say that every Australian would want to see children having a chance. We start in the child protection area. We see them dropping out of school. We see early engagement with the criminal justice system. If you think of youth justice as a freeway, any reasonable Australian would say that the off-ramp has to be at whatever possible time and as early as possible for every single case in the system.

We may say there are only about a thousand Queenslanders in the youth justice system, and I guess that sounds like a small number. We might also look at crime stats and say, 'Well, the number of people in the criminal justice system is falling.' That in and of itself is positive as well, but it doesn't help much if you're the victim of crime, and it doesn't help much if there are fewer people committing more crime. That probably is what's happening in Queensland.

It's also worth noting when it comes to vehicle related crime that Queensland's rates per 100,000 are twice the mainland state average, not 20 per cent higher. We have an absolute clear and present challenge with drug related vehicle crime for a range of reasons. The police will tell you it's not just all about rebirthing and popping them across the border. At the moment, it's more about just driving for the thrill. When you're driving to rebirth, you drive carefully. When you're driving for the thrill, you're more likely to kill someone. There is no easy answer. There is no technology that allows us to remotely switch off engines, and it's not even close. So the answer is: get under the hood early and provide every resource we can. Yes, it starts in the family. Yes, it starts at school. But I'd like to see the Commonwealth working more closely with the states.

In Queensland's case—and I think they've got a good record, having a criminal justice plan put together between 2018 and 2020—they assessed it but it's still not solved. They're not even close to solving it, but there are plenty of good minds on it. We have Bob Atkinson leading a major committee reporting to the Premier. We have a committed Labor minister in Leanne Linard, who has corresponded on these important issues. What I'm saying is that Queensland has done something called Transitions 2 Success and they've evaluated it. We've got lessons to learn from it. But, federally, we have transition-into-work programs that just sit and hover nearby but never communicate. If you walk into a court, which is a stressful, fraught environment, you've got teams of multidisciplinary thinking about every case that comes in for a mention, but the jobactive provider is down the road and around the corner just waiting for the customer to walk in. Of course, they never do because they don't have to. As long as they're downloading the app and meeting their online reporting requirement, they don't have to have a jobactive provider at all. I'm saying that this interface is too important to ignore. In every city where there is a children's court hearing in Queensland, I'd argue the transition to work should work with Transition 2 Success. There should be multiple exits off a freeway of youth justice. Every person we can get into training, back to school, or into work is a really important victory. Let us as MPs focus on that.

I want to congratulate members on the other side, the member for Oxley and the member for Moreton, for not only being open minded about the proposal of working between levels of government and political parties but asking, 'How can we help?' There's now a grant round called Safer Communities. In a somewhat Orwellian way it was once all about CCTV. It's now about engaging directly. How do we resource these at-risk children as early as possible in the journey that takes them off the path of opportunity towards the path of building a criminal resume and get them back on? It's not impossible. There's major socioeducational disadvantage. There's epigenetics at play. There are single parents. There are parents in and out of jail. Of course it's not easy.

What we know is this. We know that programs are already in place. They do need a bit more shoulder to the wheel and they do need longer term supervision. You simply can't put youth justice youth, 15 to 19 years of age, in a job and expect them to stick because you've dropped them there. They need to be wrapped around and they need long-term supervision. The evidence from the Queensland government is around a year. I think we should be committed to resourcing that. I think every person who stays in a job has a major opportunity to get off one freeway and onto the freeway we want them to be on. Let's unite on that. We have an opportunity with Safer Communities. I commend Minister Wood for this $20 million initiative. Applications are now open and I encourage every MP to apply and make this policy a reality.

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