PARENTS ’NEED TO PAY UP’
JUDGES and magistrates should be using their powers to order parents of unruly juveniles to pay for the damage from their children’s crime.
Retired Gold Coast judge Clive Wall says he is frustrated that “nothing has been done” despite a list of recommendations he outlined in a paper he wrote seven years ago to tackle youth crime. “Everything I said in that paper still applies today,” he said of the document he wrote on the effectiveness of the Children’s Court.
One of his key recommendations was to encourage the judiciary to use the powers they already had to hold parents accountable for their children’s actions.
JUDGES and magistrates should be using their powers to order parents of unruly juveniles to pay for the damage from their children’s crime, a retired Gold Coast judge has said.
Judge Clive Wall set out a list of recommendations in a paper he prepared seven years ago to tackle youth crime on the Gold Coast and has been left frustrated that “nothing has been done”.
When asked what steps had to be taken to stop the current youth crime epidemic, Judge Wall urged the Government and judiciary to “read my paper”.
“Nothing has been done, everything I said in that paper still applies today,” he said of the document he wrote on the effectiveness of the Children’s Court.
Judge Wall was one of the District Court judges operating out of Southport from 2007 until his retirement in 2016.
As a part of his duties he was also an accredited Children’s Court of Queensland judge and handed down countless sentences to juvenile offenders.
A key part of the 21page document Judge Wall published in March 2013 was to encourage the judiciary to use the powers they already had to hold parents accountable.
Under the Youth Justice Act, parents can be ordered to pay compensation for a child’s misbehaviour if the parent “may have contributed to the fact the offence happened by not adequately supervising the child”.
Judge Wall said the provision was rarely used but designed to ensure parents were playing their part in disciplining children.
He said the judiciary also needed to be more aware of what was happening in the community. He echoed sentiments made in 2013 that the focus was too often on the child offender and not on the victim or the community.
“The judiciary have to approach juvenile crime as a problem and that they can play a part in solving the problem,” Judge Wall said.
His comments came after a 12-year-old who was too small to be seen in the dock was this week given a restorative justice order for an armed robbery of a Burleigh Heads convenience store.
A group of youths are also before the courts for the alleged murder of teenager Jack Beasley in December last year.
Judge Wall said the community was expressing concerns about youth crime and calling for something to be done on social media and the letters pages of the Bulletin.
“The only people who don’t (have concerns) are the judiciary,” he said.
Judge Wall said other suggestions he made in 2013 were still relevant and included all juveniles who reoffend on a good behaviour order being resentenced, extending the time a Children’s Court magistrate could impose probation to two years, adding victims to the list of people who could apply for sentence reviews, and provisions that would allow consequences for juveniles who breached wholly or partly suspended detention orders.
RETIRED judge Clive Wall has long been an advocate of a tough love approach in dealing with juvenile offenders and parents who fail in their responsibilities.
Asked by the Bulletin this week for his views on the crime crisis the city is weathering and public anger at a "catch and release’’ juvenile justice system, he referred us to a paper he delivered in 2013 on the effectiveness of the Children’s Court.
Contributing factors can be complex, but he suggested one problem lay with the judiciary because courts were not using powers available to them to hold parents responsible. Of course, in his day Judge Wall did not just talk about what needed to be done. From the public’s perspective, sentences he handed down in the District Court were often a breath of fresh air, noting the circumstances of the offender but heeding the impact on the victim and striking an appropriate balance, which also appeared to take into account community views on justice. He would act, and stated in 2011 – in dealing with armed robberies in the wake of the shooting death of a local police officer – that he would be “handing down sentences that will no doubt attract the attention of the Court of Appeal’’.
His views on juvenile justice and the responsibilities of parents came to the fore in a case in 2013 when he ordered the mother of a 16-year-old, who had gone on a crime spree with mates that caused more than $67,000 damage, to front his court. Ruling her “permissive parenting style’’ and refusal to enforce curfews on the boy “because it would make him look like a fairy in front of friends’’ to be a parenting failure, Judge Wall ordered she pay $3625 as her contribution to reimbursing victims.
Mindful back in 2013 of how angry the public was at seeing juveniles laughing as they left the Children’s Court – much like now – Judge Wall lamented the over-use of reprimands and good behaviour orders and saw the fix, which he outlined in the paper he delivered to the local law association, as including amendments to legislation so that only magistrates with a particular interest and expertise in children’s matters be appointed to sit on the Children’s Court, and for removal of reprimand and good behaviour orders as sentencing options for serious offences. He advocated changes to probation orders and for consequences if young offenders breached them. He called for victims to be included among those who could apply for sentence review.
Yesterday, the Bulletin editorial noted the response from the police media office to our approach for comment from the Police Commissioner. Police media said our queries should be asked at a press conference being held – in Townsville. Of course, the Commissioner and Police Minister were up there at a Take Townsville Back meeting, where a furious public was demanding action over – you guessed it – juvenile crime. The answer to how the northern community was able to get the big brass to Townsville could lie in that city’s three Labor-held seats where MPs are under fire. On the Gold Coast, the Government hopes to retain the seat of Gaven in October and to win Currumbin at the by-election. It needs to toughen up in dealing with youth crime and pay more than lip service to the rights of victims and Gold Coast community perceptions.