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Adult crime, adult time? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: A note before we start. This episode contains descriptions of
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  Speaker 1: violence from the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Christian Amiot. It's Wednesday, January fifteenth. Australia's Special Envoy to
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  Speaker 1: combat anti Semitism has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi
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  Speaker 1: to convene the National Cabinet to tackle the surge in
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  Speaker 1: Jewish hatred. In an extraordinary intervention, Gillian Siegel urged federal
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  Speaker 1: and state leaders to beef up their police and judicial
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  Speaker 1: responses to anti Semitic attacks. A thirteen year old boy
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  Speaker 1: has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed
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  Speaker 1: a sixty three year old woman at a supermarket in Ipswich,
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  Speaker 1: but the Queensland Government's promised to get a handle on
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  Speaker 1: youth crime could fail thanks to a legal technicality. That's
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  Speaker 1: today's episode. It was a hot one in Ipswich on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: The city, located about forty kilometers southwest of the Brisbane CBD,
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  Speaker 1: is home to about two hundred and fifty thousand people,
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  Speaker 1: and it was on that steamy afternoon that one of them,
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  Speaker 1: a sixty three year old woman, was going about her
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  Speaker 1: business at the Coals Supermarket at the Yamanto Central Shopping Center.
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  Speaker 1: She would have felt a searing pain as a knife
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  Speaker 1: was violently and unexpectedly thrust into her back. It's not
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  Speaker 1: known if she interacted with the alleged thirteen year old
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  Speaker 1: perpetrator before the incident occurred. Security guards and shoppers stopped
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  Speaker 1: the boy as he allegedly attempted to flee the scene,
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  Speaker 1: holding him until police arrived. The woman was rushed to
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  Speaker 1: Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital with the knife still in her back.
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  Speaker 1: She's still there in the hospital's intensive care unit in
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  Speaker 1: a critical but stable condition. Now, as Queensland as grapple
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  Speaker 1: with this apparently random act of violence, the state's new
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  Speaker 1: adult crime adult time laws are facing their first big test.
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  Speaker 2: We heard a lot during the election campaign about adult
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  Speaker 2: crime adult time, and the now Premier, David Chrisofully promised
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  Speaker 2: all through the election that they would be law by Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Lydia Lynch is a Queensland political reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 2: So Those laws passed on December twelve, and they were
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  Speaker 2: assented on December thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Adult crime adult time is now a reality in Queensland,
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  Speaker 1: with the premier, one step closer to fulfilling a key
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  Speaker 1: election promise.
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  Speaker 2: Usually in Queensland we have about a six week period
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  Speaker 2: of time where laws are assessed. Because we don't have
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  Speaker 2: an upper house here, there's no Senate, so there's extra
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  Speaker 2: levels of scrutiny that are applied to legislation. But given
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  Speaker 2: he had promised to have the laws passed by Christmas,
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  Speaker 2: the public consultation period was shortened to just one week
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  Speaker 2: and some of the warnings that were given by stakeholders
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  Speaker 2: and the now opposition is that there might be some
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  Speaker 2: unintended consequences in the law that weren't properly examined. So
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  Speaker 2: they came into effect December thirteen, so it's alleged crimes
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  Speaker 2: committed after that, and there are thirteen different offenses that
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  Speaker 2: are covered. There were things like manslaughter, grievous bodily harm,
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  Speaker 2: dangerous operation of a vehicle, burglary, robbery, and what the
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  Speaker 2: legislation did was it put a mandatory minimum sentence, which
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  Speaker 2: we have for adults here in Queensland. So you might
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  Speaker 2: have a crime where a child's the maximum sentence was
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  Speaker 2: five years and for an adults it was ten years.
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  Speaker 2: So just bringing that into line. So it'll be interesting
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  Speaker 2: to see what happens through the courts because often when
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  Speaker 2: a judge's sentencing, they might not always enforce a maximum
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  Speaker 2: sentence unless the crimes particularly heinous.
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  Speaker 1: On Tuesday, less than three months after he won the
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  Speaker 1: top job, Premier David Chrisafoley said, this latest incident proves
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  Speaker 1: why the new laws are necessary.
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  Speaker 3: I reflect that this incident has occurred so close and
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  Speaker 3: within a year of what we saw happen to Violin White,
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  Speaker 3: and there's a sense of deja vous for the state
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  Speaker 3: and is exactly the coins of incidents that Queenslanders have.
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  Speaker 4: Had enough of.
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  Speaker 1: Seventy year old grandmother Violin White, was killed during an
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  Speaker 1: alleged carjacking in Redbank, planes west of Brisbane in early
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. A sixteen year old boy was arrested
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  Speaker 1: and charged with murder, unlawful use of a motor vehicle
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  Speaker 1: and three counts of stealing. He will be held in
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  Speaker 1: custody until a judge decides if he should face trial.
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  Speaker 1: But that alleged incident isn't subject to the new adult
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  Speaker 1: crime adult time laws because it occurred before December.
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  Speaker 4: My resolve to dealing with it is as strong as ever,
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  Speaker 4: and I want Queenslanders to know how much we understand
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  Speaker 4: that instance like this just rock the fabric of who
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  Speaker 4: we are.
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  Speaker 1: The thirteen year old alleged perpetrator of the Ipswich stabbing
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  Speaker 1: was remanded in custody on Monday night and by Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: morning he'd been charged with attempted murder. Shortly after, he
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  Speaker 1: faced Ipswich Children's Court, where the matter will return on
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  Speaker 1: February twenty five. If the boy were to be convicted
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  Speaker 1: and sentenced like an adult for his alleged crime, he
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  Speaker 1: could be facing a hefty sentence.
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  Speaker 2: If a child is as young as eleven and they
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  Speaker 2: found guilty of murder, they'll face a mandatory minimum life sentence,
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  Speaker 2: which is twenty years in Queensland, and that's the same
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  Speaker 2: as an adult. For the other twelve offenses listed in
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  Speaker 2: the legislation, things like grievous bodily harm, serious assault. They
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  Speaker 2: really just lifted the maximum penalties. For example, previously, if
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  Speaker 2: a child was found guilty of committing grievous bodily harm,
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  Speaker 2: the maximum sentence they could face was seven years. Under
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  Speaker 2: the new laws, they can face fourteen years.
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  Speaker 1: But the thing is this particular crime attempt to murder
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  Speaker 1: isn't covered by the government's new laws, meaning this alleged
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  Speaker 1: perpetrator could evade adult sentencing on a technicality. We'll have
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  Speaker 1: more on that after the break. On Tuesday, David Chris
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  Speaker 1: A Foley was asked why attempted murder wasn't included in
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  Speaker 1: the first tranche of adult crime Adult time legislation.
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  Speaker 3: We implemented the changes that we took to the election.
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  Speaker 3: There will be more changes to the youth justice sect,
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  Speaker 3: many more. It was it took to the people of
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  Speaker 3: Queensland's as we've been putting that expert panel together to
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  Speaker 3: work out exactly what future wage those changes was like,
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  Speaker 3: and believe me, they will occur.
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  Speaker 1: The Queensland Premier rejected suggestions this latest incident, the allegedly
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  Speaker 1: unprovoked stabbing of a woman in her sixties at any
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  Speaker 1: Ipswich supermarket, means Queenslanders aren't safer under his government. But
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  Speaker 1: the question now is how will voters feel if the
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  Speaker 1: long promised crime crackdown falls over at the first hurdle.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Lydia Lynch.
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  Speaker 2: It's been an issue in the regions for a number
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  Speaker 2: of years, but the issue of youth crime really became
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  Speaker 2: a statewide, central political issue during the last term of government,
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  Speaker 2: and it was all driven by David chris A Fully
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  Speaker 2: who was then the opposition later, who was really focused
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  Speaker 2: on targeting what he called this youth crime crisis that
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  Speaker 2: was spinning out of control. He spoke about how Labor
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  Speaker 2: had made changes to the law ten years ago and
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  Speaker 2: that had created this new generation of young people that
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  Speaker 2: felt they were untouchable by the law.
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  Speaker 3: We want youth criminals to understand that the days of
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  Speaker 3: their rights being greater than the rights of the victim
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  Speaker 3: are I think of the past.
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  Speaker 2: During the campaign, he promised that he would resign as
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  Speaker 2: Premiere if there was not a reduction in the number
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  Speaker 2: of crime victims in Queensland during his first four year term.
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  Speaker 2: So this isn't just any old political issue in Queensland.
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  Speaker 2: This is really make or break for David chris A
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  Speaker 2: Fully and he has promised voters to address it. This
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  Speaker 2: latest alleged crime might have some questions being thrown up
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  Speaker 2: for people about whether these adult crime adult time laws
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  Speaker 2: will actually lead to a reduction in youth crime. We've
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  Speaker 2: spoken to some lawyers and stakeholders who say harsher penalties
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  Speaker 2: aren't actually going to fix the problem or lead to
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  Speaker 2: a reduction in youth crime, because they don't address the
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  Speaker 2: root causes of why people are going out and offending,
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  Speaker 2: whether that's drug addiction or they might come from a
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  Speaker 2: really difficult home facing. The Premier has said that he
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  Speaker 2: wants to invest more in early intervention as well, so
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  Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see how this plays out over
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  Speaker 2: the next year or two to see whether or not
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  Speaker 2: there really is a change in crime, because that's what
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  Speaker 2: he has promised to do.
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  Speaker 1: Lydia Lynch is a Queensland political reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 1: You can read all the latest on this story, as
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  Speaker 1: well as all the nation's best news, sport, politics and
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  Speaker 1: business right now at the Australian dot com dot au