Exile worth exploring
TAKE them out west!
When the pollies blame the courts and the courts blame the pollies, it becomes a neverending cycle. Finger pointing and name calling that litters public discourse regarding the scourge of youth crime in Townsville is not the answer.
The fact of the matter is that children push boundaries, and the Government is responsible for setting socially acceptable boundaries through the law.
As demonstrated, nearly daily, the current socially acceptable behaviour, as set by Mr Harper, Mrs O’rourke and Mr Stewart, is that knifepoint robberies, car jackings and home invasions are accepted as the norm. This, followed by a slap on the wrist, would land the young offender four weeks in an airconditioned room with a Playstation.
Then the toxic cycle starts back again, with these young offenders roaming the streets of our city.
While the LNP plot a return to Newman-style law and order, which slapped any random punter with a 15-year jail sentence for being an associate of a bloke with a tattoo, Townsville is a city of progression, not regression.
Indigenous Australia had a perfect process of dealing with lawlessness, exile. It’s harsh, but it worked. The lawless learned their lesson away from the community and returned as a useful member of the community. In today’s society, we can still do this and see results. Relocation sentencing allows for the individual to be away from our community to learn how to be a constructive part of our society.
Take the 50-odd “hard nuts to crack” out west for long stints, connect with country, show them a hard day’s work, teach them to value the fruit of their labour, develop employable skills and provide a genuine rehabilitative process.
Not only will relocation sentencing provide additional tools to magistrates, it prevents Cleveland becoming a criminal nursery and keeps our streets that much safer.
We already have relocation models in place from Geoff Toomey’s rehabilitative program, and the Yinda
Program plus political support from the KAP.
Participants within these programs are provided genuine opportunities to gain practical employable skillsets in fencing, cattle work and general labouring while working in fairly unforgiving terrain.
The programs have seen success in the past through building resilience, and providing opportunity to break poverty cycles.
I sincerely hope that our MPS choose to support their electorates, set clear socially acceptable boundaries and back relocation sentencing, rather than continuing to bobble their heads in agreeance with their Brisbane counterparts while shops are held up at knifepoint in Heatley.
We need to take action and take them out west!
ANDY FILDES, Townsville City.