CLP’s punitive measures alone won’t reduce crime
Frontline workers, paediatricians, legal experts and Territory Victims of Crime have strongly voiced concerns about lowering the age of criminal responsibility, saying it will decrease community safety by entrenching children in the criminal justice system.
Territory Labor stands with these frontline experts and the thousands of Territorians who are deeply concerned about children as young as 10 and 11 being locked up and call on the CLP Government to scrap this plan.
Meanwhile, the CLP appear to have already broken a key pillar of their community safety campaign, after being forced to admit that they have no plan for managing prisons or rehabilitating prisoners.
On Friday 11 October, the Minister for Corrections walked back the CLP’s pre-election prisons plan and was unable to explain what the CLP will do after someone enters the justice system.
When asked what the CLP’s plan was Minister Maley stated, “well I can’t, I’m not going to tell you what the plan is right now… we’re working on a plan”.
This is a stark contradiction to promises made pre-election, with their now-broken plan promising an “immediate injection of $15 million to fund new work camps and skills programs”.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the CLP do not have a plan for preventing crime, they do not have a plan for where to put prisoners and they do not have a plan to rehabilitate prisoners. Their only real plans are around locking up children and further entrenching people in crime. This is not a plan to keep the community safe.
Quotes attributed to Opposition Leader Selena Uibo:
“Ten-year-olds heading down the wrong path need support and guidance, not the walls of a prison cell which will further entrench them in a life of crime.
“Punitive measures alone won’t make the community safer. Where is the CLP’s plan to prevent crime in the first place or stop people reoffending through initiatives like youth diversion programs, fully funding Territory schools and investment in training pathways?
Quotes attributed to Shadow Attorney General Chansey Paech:
“Before the election the CLP made massive community safety promises including new work camps, skills programs and youth booth camps to minimise re-offending. All of that seems to have fallen by the wayside.
“Community safety is about more than putting people in watch houses and prisons, it is also about investing in crime reduction measures and rehabilitation for offenders.”