‘Con Air’ a taxing expense

TAXPAYERS are forking out almost $1000 a day to fly juvenile criminals around the state with youth detention centres at full capacity.

Right to Information documents, obtained by the state Opposition reveal the State Government spent more than $180,000 in a six-month period from November last year moving the juvenile offenders around to and from court dates and upon their prison release.

The LNP Opposition has hit out at the “Con Air” program which uses both private and commercial flights, saying it should be scrapped for less grandiose methods such as train and bus.

It can also be revealed an “extraordinary” flight was chartered by the Government’s own aviation wing in March to send five juvenile criminals from the overcrowded Brisbane Youth Detention Centre to the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville to lessen the pressure on facilities in Brisbane.

The total cost for the chartered flight was $6200. A total of three chartered flights were booked over the six month period, costing $21,000.

Taxpayers also paid for a number of juveniles to fly on a 50-minute Qantas flight from Mackay to Townsville, where the detention centre is based, despite it being just a four-hour drive. Included in the airfares were tickets for youth justice staff who were in charge of the children.