Far North’s cycle of crime must be broken

WE OFTEN hear about how complex fixing our crime scourge is. Well you don’t have to look much further for evidence than our report on the charges against two Mooroobool boys aged 10 and 12.

They’re accused of allegedly smashing the windows of several cars at a major Cairns shopping centre this week, stealing cash and mobile phones.

Police say the boy, 10, was driving an allegedly stolen car the next day.

It’s hard to get your head around a 10-year-old boy driving on our roads, let alone steering a stolen car.

The list of charges against the boys are maddening and sad. How do we break this pathetic cycle?

Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard says there has to be a primary focus on early intervention.

Her visit follows that of her boss, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who was in the Far North earlier this week to hook up the Kaban wind farm to the supergrid.

During the press conference, the Premier said her government was considering a detention centre in Cairns.

More detail was then drip-fed that there would be wraparound services that addressed critical Cairns issues.

Ms Linard on Thursday moved to inject more detail about what her department thought those wraparound services looked like.

Listening to victims and the broader community for almost eight years about this escalating problem, I’ve found there are several main commonalities in people’s thinking. Victims must be heard and cared for, there must be consequences for bad behaviour, the family unit and early intervention is critical and that we must build hope for the future.