Last calls out minister on crime data bungle
THE Youth Justice Minister has been called out as “misleading at best” after she claimed certain youth justice data wasn’t available the same day it appeared in the Queensland Police Service annual report.
Opposition police spokesman Dale Last said that Leanne Linard, the minister, had some explaining to do. The Burdekin MP had asked a Question on Notice of
Minister Linard about the total rate of reoffending since January 1, 2015, to date. In her answer, released on August 31, Ms Linard said “2019 is the latest complete calendar year for which 12-month reoffending is available”.
However, on the same day, QPS released its annual report, which includes the data.
“The Queensland Police Service annual report includes data up until June 30 this year so there is 18 months of data that the minister, obviously, does not want to share,” Mr Last said.
“The Minister can’t claim ignorance because, in the same QPS report, it says that the data is ‘currently used by QPS’ and the minister’s department.”
Mr Last said his office was often contacted by victims of young offenders. “People just want the truth, and they are sick of being given the runaround by the Labor state government,” he said.
“When it comes to deciding who to believe, I am sure that Queenslanders have more faith in our police than the current government. The minister's response says youth reoffending in 2019 was 65 per cent yet the Queensland Police Annual Report says the rate for the 2019-20 year was 71 per cent.
“To make matters worse, the QPS report quotes a rate of 75 per cent for the 2020-21 financial year so, based on that, the government’s plan to tackle youth crime is a $500m failure.”