LNP quietly scraps expert youth crime panel during cyclone

David Crisafulli and LNP disbands independent panel advising government on youth crime, prevention and intervention
Members of the council included victim-survivors, victim advocates, the legal sector and peak advocacy bodies
Cut follows group’s submission to Making Queensland Safer Bill, where concerns were raised about unintended consequences, strain on youth justice system and pressure on victim-survivors

David Crisafulli’s LNP Government has used the cover of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred to quietly scrap the independent victims council supposed to advise governments on youth crime and justice reforms.

Information received by the Opposition confirms the LNP secretly disbanded the Independent Ministerial Advisory Council last week, which consists of victims of crime, representatives from the legal sector and peak advocacy bodies, First Nations representatives and expert practitioners.

It follows the group’s submission to the LNP’s adult crime, adult time legislation where the council raised concerns about the Bill being rushed through parliament allowing little time for evidence-based considerations and though to unintended consequences.

In its submission, IMAC said:

“The Parliamentary Committee process is crucial for ensuring transparency, accountability and public participation in the legislative process… IMAC members are concerned about the rapid pace that the Parliamentary Committee and public consultation processes have

occurred in relation to the Bill, particularly considering the significant reforms and acknowledged human rights infringements proposed by the Bill.

“The IMAC provides this advice to the Inquiry with a view to amplifying the experiences of people impacted by youth crime, including victim-survivors and offenders, however, would prefer to engage with the government in a more considered and meaningful way about reforms to the criminal justice system.”

Group members included:

Amie Carrington - Chief Executive Officer of the Domestic Violence Action Centre
Brett Thompson - Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group
Chris Jones - related victim and joined the IMAC as a victim-advocate.
Elvie Sandow - the first female mayor of Cherbourg and previously served as Chairperson of Youth and Community Combined Action, a juvenile crime prevention initiative.
Matilda Alexander - CEO of Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion and a human rights lawyer with a lengthy history in the community legal sector.
Natalie Merlehan - victim representative who has been working with Voice for Victims
Robert Keith Hamburger - Queensland’s first Director-General of the then Queensland Corrective Services Commission who led significant reform across Queensland’s prisons
Professor Susan Dennison - a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University
Zac Davidson - Youth Parliamentarian with firsthand insight into the complexities surrounding youth-related crime

Opposition Leader Steven Miles questioned why the government scrapped the independent body, which gave victims a direct voice to government and, why it used the cover of the cyclone to quietly do it.

Quotes attributable to Opposition Leader Steven Miles:

“David Crisafulli said they’d put victims at the heart of youth justice. He’s ripped them right out of the process with this one.

“When millions of Queenslanders were preparing for a cyclone, the LNP used the cloud cover to quietly scrap an expert panel that gave a voice to victims in shaping the youth crime laws that impacted them.

“Was it because they didn’t like what the independent panel told them? Was it because the council raised concerns about the LNP’s signature piece of legislation, about unintended consequences and the pressure it’d put on our youth justice system?

“The LNP chose to ignore the warnings of groups like the expert victims panel, and the consequence of that is their laws have failed Queenslanders.

“Now, Queenslanders are left waiting for a new panel set up by the LNP with some pretty questionable links to their party to fix their broken laws.”

ENDS