Across Far North Queensland communities have been very clear about their expectations of the youth justice system. They want a system that protects the community, they want a system that supports victims and prevents crime in the first place and they want a system that puts the right of law-abiding Queenslanders ahead of the excuses of repeat offenders. They want a system that does more than process the same offenders through the courts time and time again only to see them released back and before the courts days and weeks later.
For a decade, Queenslanders were told to accept this as normal, that repeat offenders did not need consequences; they simply needed more chances and more excuses. For too long communities like mine were expected to tolerate a revolving door of offending, bail breaches and repeat victimisation. Far North Queensland has rightly had enough. In Far North Queensland we have a cohort of around 50 serious repeat youth offenders responsible for a disproportionate amount of offending, and that is down from around 85 when we first came to government.
These are not young people making a one-off mistake; they have repeatedly offended, repeatedly breached bail and repeatedly found themselves back before the courts. When these serious repeat offenders are locked up by police or sent to detention, we see offending drop significantly in our region. That tells us something. We know who many of these serious repeat offenders are and we know that when they are removed from our streets our communities are safer. However, the challenge is what happens next, because simply locking someone up and then releasing them back into the same circumstances without meaningful intervention does not necessarily break the cycle, and that is why this bill is so important.
The Circuit Breaker program is designed to intervene before a pattern of offending becomes a lifetime of offending. In Far North Queensland, offending can begin with a young person disengaging from school, falling in with the wrong crowd, becoming exposed to criminal behaviour and gradually accepting offending as normal. They may be influenced by older peers, siblings, cousins and adults already entrenched in criminal behaviour and rather than being encouraged towards education, employment and opportunity they are drawn into a cycle of offending from a very young age. They are taught to break into homes and to steal without any thought of the people they leave behind—people who have had their belongings stolen, their cars taken, their homes violated and their sense of safety shattered. That is what they have been taught to do, so for these youth criminals crime becomes normalised and, before long, it becomes a way of life.
Without intervention, that young person can become trapped in a cycle of offending, court appearances, bail breaches and further offending. The purpose of Circuit Breaker Sentencing is to break that cycle before it becomes entrenched. It is not only about changing the trajectory of a young person’s life before they become the next generation of serious repeat offenders but also about protecting future victims by reducing the likelihood that a young offender becomes a lifelong offender.
Intensive supervision, structure, rehabilitation and accountability: that is what these offenders need and this is what our community expects. While they are participating in the program, they are not out on the streets creating more victims, committing more offences and breaching bail.
Let us be clear: this is not a soft option. It involves strict supervision, clear expectations and consequences for noncompliance. It is not a holiday, it is not a reward and it is not a free pass; it is a court ordered circuit breaker designed to take serious repeat offenders off our streets, hold them to account and give them an opportunity to choose a different path, and this is something our community has been calling for. We have had enough of young people spending years repeatedly offending, breaching bail and victimising Queenslanders. If someone has spent years repeatedly causing harm they need to be stopped, but we also need to be smart about what happens next. If we keep putting young people through the same system and expecting a different outcome, we will continue to see the same cycle.
The committee received 57 submissions, including one from the Cairns Regional Council, supporting the Circuit Breaker program and its focus on structured rehabilitation while emphasising the importance of monitoring and evaluation. The council stated— The need for new approaches to sentencing and rehabilitating young offenders is clear and Cairns Regional Council commends the Queensland Government for investing in alternative rehabilitative custodial approaches, including the Circuit Breaker program.
The council also cited a statistic that matters here: 71 per cent of young people released from detention in Queensland reoffend within 12 months, so that is seven in 10. If that does not tell us that something needs to change, I do not know what will. Circuit Breaker seeks to change that and it places serious repeat offenders into a structured supervised environment, holds them to account and gives them the opportunity to develop skills and behaviours needed to choose a different path. Most importantly, it has the potential to prevent future victims and make communities across Far North Queensland safer.
This bill does not stand alone. Rather, it forms part of a broader commitment by this government to restore accountability to the youth justice system and put community safety back at the centre of decision-making. Unlike the former Labor government, which spent a decade weakening laws and making excuses for repeat offenders, this government has been consistent. We are strengthening the laws, never weakening them. We introduced Adult Crime, Adult Time because serious offences deserve serious consequences. We are strengthening bail laws so serious repeat offenders cannot simply move through a revolving door of bail, offending and reoffending.
Under our new bail reforms for certain serious offences, the court must have a high degree of confidence that that person will not commit another serious offence while on bail before bail can be granted. Under the Breach Bail, Go to Jail reforms, committing a serious offence while on bail will itself become a new offence, with a mandatory minimum 12-month term of imprisonment for offenders who meet the requirements. The message is simple: if you commit serious crime, there are serious consequences. If you are given bail and commit another serious crime, there are even stronger consequences.
We have also expanded electronic monitoring and continued reforms aimed at ensuring serious repeat offenders face real consequences. However, this government is not simply about stronger laws and tougher consequences; we are also investing in early intervention and rehabilitation because we want to see and prevent the next offenders from ever entering the cycle. That is where Circuit Breaker Sentencing comes in, because stronger laws alone are not enough. If we want to reduce victim numbers, we must also reduce reoffending. If we want safer communities, we must prevent the next offence before it occurs.
This bill pairs accountability with intervention, and it pairs consequences with rehabilitation, because protecting the community and changing lives do not have to be competing objectives; in fact, they should be the same objective. If we can stop serious repeat offenders from becoming lifelong offenders, we create fewer victims, fewer crimes and safer communities. That is the approach of the LNP Crisafulli government. We want stronger laws; tougher consequences; early intervention where appropriate; rehabilitation focused on results, not excuses; and, above all, community safety first. For the people of Far North Queensland, that is what they have been asking for and that is what this
government is delivering. I fully support this bill. Well done to the minister and her team.
