The Queensland Law Society is supportive of measures which will boost community safety and reduce recidivism, Deputy President Genevieve Dee told the Parliamentary Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee at yesterday’s public hearing.
QLS Children’s Law Committee Chair Damian Bartholomew and Criminal Law Committee member Julia Jasper also represented the Society at yesterday’s hearings on the Making Queensland Safer Legislation.
“We are deeply concerned that this bill will not reduce youth offending and will in fact escalate the activities of recidivist offenders and unfairly punish children at their first point of contact with the youth justice system,” Genevieve said.
The Deputy President said as family lawyers, she and her colleagues had seen the first-hand impacts of abuse, domestic and family violence and the child protection system on the young people that were the subject of this bill.
She said these children had been rejected by their communities, well before they were offenders and that rejecting them further would only entrench these children in the youth justice and criminal justice systems instead of rehabilitating them to become valuable community members.
This was a sentiment echoed by the Queensland Bar Association President Cate Heyworth-Smith KC in her opening remarks.
Both associations have noted that in order to make the Queensland community safer, the root causes of youth crime must be addressed.
Genevieve said when considering systems reform, the youth justice system could not be viewed in isolation.
“A child’s access to education, housing and health care cannot be siloed from their right to be free from domestic and family violence, their safety within the child protection system and the impact of intergenerational trauma,” she said.
“It is a young person’s interaction with all these complex systems, and the failure of these systems to meet the needs of a child, that drive of youth crime across the country.”
Member for Maiwar Michael Berkman asked QLS about whether there would be any unintentional consequences as a result of the legislation.
Damian told the committee panel that due to the limited amount of time for consultation, he thought all of the unintended consequences had yet to be explored.
He said the Society was concerned about the bill taking away from methods of restorative justice which have been shown to be effective in diverting children away from the court justice system.
“One of the reasons why it’s [restorative justice] encouraged by the profession is because that information is not subsequently disclosed to the court,” he said.
Damian said if that information was to be disclosed to a court, it was unlikely the profession would be able to encourage young offenders toward restorative justice processes, and if these young people participating were diverted to the courts it could cause a backlog within the courts.
The legislation is before the Parliament after being introduced during last week’s sitting and aims to reform the justice system per the State Government’s Adult Crime, Adult Time election promise.
If passed, the new laws would create tougher maximum sentences for crimes such as murder, manslaughter, serious assault, grievous bodily harm, burglary and dangerous operation of a vehicle.
Children as young as 10 who were found guilty of one of the crimes listed could face a mandatory life imprisonment. This would also include a non-parole period of 20 years.
Children can currently receive a maximum penalty of up to 10 years, with life imprisonments only being considered for particularly heinous crimes.
Alongside the QLS, the committee also heard from the Voice for Victims Group, the Youth Advocacy Centre and the Queensland Council of Social Services.
With the report due on Friday, 6 December, QLS was one of several groups to express its concern about the tight deadline for submissions, and how this may affect the information for the panel’s consideration.
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