Pressure from groups calling for either a backdown or further tough action continues to fuel the emotive issue amid internal frustrations while the Premier is away.
Before Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk flew overseas for a holiday,another episode in the crime debate may have revealed the new normal in Queensland.
The health minister,one of three senior Labor MPs seen as potential leaders,has sought to explain recent backbench concerns – and the premier’s holiday.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles believes the community wants action. But a national official says Queensland has “a system in crisis,and the community is not safer”.
The long-term crime victim advocate also used her speech on a contentious bill in parliament to say the government’s first priority had to be supporting victims.
Crime debate dominates parliament,starting with a victim protest and ending with the government flagging a new human rights law bypass.
Declan Cutler was fatally attacked by a group of teens last year. His father says more children will die if the community doesn’t tackle the scourge of youth knife violence.
While the post-budget roadshow gave them a chance to spruik their goods,the government has had anything but a chance to take a breath over the mid-year break.
Faced with extreme stress,abuse and low pay,child safety and youth justice staff are being driven out of the job – to the detriment of the state’s most vulnerable children.
This week’s decision in the Supreme Court should immediately trigger a rethink of how youth justice works in Western Australia and an end to the ‘law and order’ approach to the issue.
The court found the Department of Justice unlawfully locked three young people in their cells at Banksia Hill Detention Centre and Unit 18 inside an adult prison.