‘TOUGHEN UP BAIL’

OPPOSITION spokesman for police and corrective services Dale Last has urged the state government to strengthen its bail laws amid a wild week of youth crime in Townsville.

The Burdekin MP believes the new laws, which were brought into effect last month, do not go far enough and more is needed to crack down on the kids running rampant through Townsville.

Mr Last (pictured below right) said the judicial system needed the ability to come down harder on young offenders, and GPS trackers needed to be used on all young offenders, not just those over 16.

This follows the arrest of four teenagers under 16 who were allegedly involved in a slew of incidents in Townsville on Thursday.

“The minister (Mark Ryan) has put out a statement trumpeting the GPS tracking techno, being rolled out as of Monday,” Mr Last said.

“But if you look at (Thursday’s) incidents here in Townsville, most of those offenders were under the age of 16 so the GPS tracker technology wasn’t actually applied to that cohort.

“He needs to extend that technology to include all of these juvenile offenders.”

Police and Corrective Services Minister Mr Ryan said the trial of the GPS monitoring devices gave police and the courts another tool to target the “small minority that commits the majority of offences”.

“Courts will be able to order 16 to 17-year-olds to wear GPS devices if they are given bail, providing an extra layer of security and increased safety for the community,” Mr Ryan said.

“The devices will be monitored around the clock by Queensland Corrective Services who have extensive experience with this technology.”

The GPS tracker begin from Monday.

Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter called on the government to stop “hiding behind carefully curated data”.

The Traeger MP has been critical of the government’s crime trial will crackdown message before, previously questioning its data.

“There’s a sharp increase in people coming to my electorate office saying, ‘what are you doing about this?’” he said.

Townsville MP Scott Stewart said the new laws gave more power to crack down on repeat offenders. “What we have done is to increase the bail legislation to make sure those repeat offenders remain in custody unless they can prove they are no longer a risk to our community,” he said.