CRIMINAL AGE DANGER

WITH Townsville hurting so badly from juvenile crime now for six years, how can a major political party like the ALP vote in favour at its state conference to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, given this age group has many offenders who are recidivist house burglars and car thieves, making them virtually untouchable from the law?

Given our crisis in Townsville, how can this political party be so out of touch with reality. The answer lies with a comparison of Australia’s population of nearly 26 million people, and Labor’s estimated total membership in Australia of only 60,000 people, which represents less than a quarter of 1 per cent, close to one person in 500.

Given those people would have been driven to join the ALP by leftwing ideology, being so out of touch with the average mum and dad in suburbia should come as no surprise. No doubt the many victims of crime in Townsville would dearly love to tell the UN what it can do with its supposedly “world’s best practice”.

A fair question is best for who, the victim or the perpetrator?

The headline Criminal age to stay in the Townsville Bulletin (June 7) is really misleading, given Labor’s official policy is now just the opposite, and the Premier already admitting she is just waiting for the Attorneys-general of other states to come on board the good ship World’s Best Practice, thereby deflecting blame and political damage and condemning the people of Townsville to a very bleak future.

Townsville’s only hope is the people get an iron-clad commitment from both Labor and the LNP at the next election that the age of criminal responsibility will not be raised by legislation in parliament, or otherwise our future, put bluntly, is stuffed. BARRY DAVIES, Cranbrook.