MESSAGE GETTING THROUGH
‘I’m not singing party line’ says MP on crime
BESIEGED Cairns MP Michael Healy claims he is not “singing the party line” and will take frustrated residents’ concerns about the city’s juvenile crime crisis to the Attorney-General.
Mr Healy revealed he had spoken to Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath four times in the past two days by phone and would meet her on his next visit to Brisbane as anger swells.
The first-term MP has come under fire in recent days from an angry Cairns public upset at the skyrocketing number of car thefts and home break-ins.
“I’m not singing the party line, I’m going to take down to Brisbane what’s going on,” Mr Healy said.
Members of a newly-formed crime action group met Mr Healy yesterday levelling blame on a flawed justice system and MPs beholden to laws that were failing the Far North.
Aaron McLeod of the Crime and Justice Action Group said a clause in the Youth Justice
Act that enabled youth offenders back on the street needed to be changed.
The meeting comes as four of five youths charged with stealing and posing with a car on social media were denied bail after being slapped with almost 40 charges.
Following their arrest, it is understood one of the group said to police: “Nothing you can do. We’ll be out tomorrow stealing your cars you c***suckers”.
CAIRNS MP Michael Healy is to query the Attorney-General about why residents fed up with crime in the city don’t believe Labor legislation is working.
The first-term MP has come under fire in recent days from an angry Cairns public on the back of a juvenile crime crisis with the number of car thefts and home break-ins going through the roof.
New Labor legislation came into effect in December in a bid to keep young people out of watch-houses, but a jump in offending followed in both Cairns and Townsville. Speaking yesterday Mr Healy said he had spoken to Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath four times in the past two days by phone and they would meet on his next visit to Brisbane.
“Like me, (the community) want to know why kids are not being detained,” he said.
“There appears to be a disconnect between people’s expectations and what’s being rolled out in our courts.
“I’m not singing the party line, I’m going to take down to Brisbane what’s going on.”
Mr Healy said the Cairns crime crisis appeared to have “exploded out of nowhere” and, combined with issues linked to about 170 Aurukun residents who had relocated to the city, it had created “the perfect storm”.
Mr Healy met a newlyformed Crime and Justice Action Group which is advocating for legislative changes.
LNP leader Deb Frecklington said the laws, which allowed for children to be released on bail “despite unreasonable risk”, should never have been changed in the first place, although stopped short of guaranteeing their repeal until the lead-up to the election.
“The LNP will look at this and other tough new measures in the lead-up to the election,” she said. “The LNP will bring consequences back to crack down on the youth crime crisis and stop the revolving door.”
Mr Healy said the LNP’s contribution to the Cairns issue had been “like a fuel tanker turning up to a blaze” and had been “devoid of any detail, was all emotion and all hype”.
Barron River MP Craig Crawford said the crime issues were being created by a small but prolific cohort of offenders which should make it “easier to resolve”.
“There is definitely some component there … and it’s not delivering outcomes the community expects,” he said.
“That law (regarding children in custody) needed to change, but the magistrates still have the capacity to remand kids. I don’t think the answer is a blanket approach for all. The magistrates still need to have the ability to make decisions (about bail).”
Ms D’Ath paid a secret visit to Townsville’s Specialist High Risk Youth Court on Tuesday, watching 13 cases.
She told local media she was there “to see how agencies interact and see the sort of matters that are before the courts and how they are being dealt with and take that learning back to my colleagues”.
Her spokesman said she had no current trips planned for Cairns but “regularly visits courts throughout the state to see how they are functioning”.
THERE APPEARS TO BE A DISCONNECT BETWEEN PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS
AND WHAT’S BEING ROLLED OUT IN OUR COURTS. I’M NOT SINGING THE PARTY LINE, I’M GOING TO TAKE DOWN TO BRISBANE
WHAT’S GOING ON. CAIRNS MP MICHAEL HEALY