Worthy idea

Calls for mandatory national service for youth criminals will have receptive ears

Youth crime is the issue that is bedevilling all sides of politics and the community has evidently had enough. The state government is under enormous pressure to bring the crisis under control, particularly in the wake of the horrifying death of Ipswich grandmother Vyleen White – who was fatally stabbed in the underground carpark of her local shops, the Redbank Town Centre, on Saturday when her Hyundai Getz was allegedly stolen.

Further south on the Gold Coast, a group of young delinquents stole a pair of highend cars from a Helensvale property the same day.

This comes after several years of high-profile incidents, across the Coast and southeast at large, of children and teenagers stealing cars and live-streaming their crime sprees on social media.

They are so unconcerned about the impact of the justice system or its ability to hold them to account that they don’t hide their identities. Many of these young people, whose identities can never be published, have later been revealed as multi-time offenders.

So what to do about this?

The LNP has continued to push its recycled youth boot camp idea, which has repeatedly been tried and later found to have made no impact on curbing youth crime.

Now Mayor Tom Tate says mandatory national service for repeat offenders should be used.

“My radical view is that, at a federal level, it is time this generation needs to (learn) respect and a stint in the army is a good way to serve the public and learn some skills,” he said.

“I’d rather see our taxpayer dollars put into that – so rather than being taught the art of being a criminal, they learn the art of being an Australian.”

There are a lot of fed-up Gold Coasters who will understandably find themselves agreeing with Mr Tate’s sentiments.

The suggestion will likely be ignored. There’s no political will at federal or state level from either side for the move. Conservatives have called for national service to return since the 1980s but no Coalition government has ever shown any interest. Regardless, something “radical” must be done. Where once such an idea would have been scoffed at, it doesn’t seem so unreasonable right now.

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