Ms ROSOL question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF
Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples released a damning statement on the nationwide crisis in youth justice. They said:
Children are suffering undue harm to their safety and wellbeing as well as to their educational and life prospects as a result of short-sighted approaches to youth criminality and detention.
In particular, they raised concerns about moves to introduce so-called ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws across the nation. They said these new and proposed state laws are:
Incompatible with basic child rights.
Following these unequivocal statements from the UN, surely you can see why we are so alarmed about Police Minister Felix Ellis’s push for these exact laws. Premier, will you rein in your police minister, ditch the adult crime, adult time plan and make sure your government protects the rights of Tasmanian children?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the member for the question, and a well-researched question at that. I have said many times that we are committed to the Youth Justice Blueprint and having trauma-informed but also more therapeutic pathways for young offenders to ensure that through those pathways and those areas of diversion resource to ensure that our young people who commit crime are able to have the opportunity, of course, through those resources and through that better support to be productive members of our community and positive community citizens. We also have to ensure that people are held responsible for the crimes that they commit and to ensure that we and young people understand fully the consequences of such very serious crimes.
Minister Ellis is simply stating the facts when it comes to 57 of young offenders commit 50 per cent of the crime. We also cannot resolve from the fact that some people in our community feel very scared and very threatened. We need to ensure that we have the appropriate police resources on the front line, which we have continually built up over the course of the last decade to ensure that our communities are safe.
It is about striking the right balance. I said myself that all options need to be on the table. We have not committed to adult time for adult crime, but it is a matter that has been implemented in another state of the nation, and they are pointing to some success with respect to that.
What I am committed to is our pathway forward with the Youth Justice Blueprint and we are implementing that under the leadership of minister Jaensch. Minister Ellis’s responsibility is to ensure that our police resources are appropriate, our response times are appropriate, and the support for our police officers is appropriate when it comes to the challenges of youth crime in our community.
I will also make the point that I do not want young people characterised –
The SPEAKER – The Premier’s time for answering the question has expired.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Ms ROSOL – A supplementary question, Speaker?
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary question.
Ms ROSOL – The UN’s been very clear that, adult crime, adult time, is a clear violation of the rights of children and young people. The Premier in his answer just now failed to rule that out. He has failed on previous occasions to rule that out and that is quite damning. I ask the Premier: why is it so hard to listen to the UN? Do you think that your Minister for Police knows more than the UN?
Mr ROCKLIFF – We seek and take advice from many quarters with respect to this very challenging issue. I do not want to see an escalation of youth crime in Tasmania as has been presented in states such as Queensland and Victoria. The most important people to listen to are in our community and their expectations in keeping them safe and their expectations and their ‑
Dr Woodruff – Why do we have a commission of inquiry?
The SPEAKER – Leader of the Greens.
Mr ROCKLIFF – expectations in ensuring that we have contemporary model of therapeutic care and therapeutic youth justice system to ensure that young people who, for often no fault of their own, diverted to a pathway of crime, and serious crime at that, given the circumstances and their horrific lived-experiences, often from birth.
The SPEAKER – The Premier’s time for answering the supplementary question has expired.
