The Liberals’ rhetoric on youth crime is revolting. In announcing their planned ‘Strikeforce’, Jeremy Rockliff referred to “juvenile career criminals” – this is simply fearmongering at the expense of young people.
In the context of the Commission of Inquiry, this is base politics at its worst.
Many children the Liberals talking about are living in stressful situations, often dealing with homelessness, family violence or poverty. They need support, not a Strikeforce – and they don’t need to be on a fast-track to the still-open Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
The COI was clear about the desperate need to move to therapeutic justice, community interventions and police using diversionary programs instead of treating children like criminals and abandoning them to the youth justice system.*
A police Strikeforce is not therapeutic justice.
Is this what Jeremy Rockliff meant when he stood up in Parliament and committed to enacting all of the COI’s recommendations?
You don’t fix youth justice by locking up more children.
Whipping up fear in an election campaign around the young people the COI identified as some of the most at risk is reprehensible.
* Recommendations 12.13 and 12.11
