New crimes have been added to Queensland’s Making Queensland Safer legislation, with State Parliament approving amendments this week.
Premier David Crisafulli said the second tranche of Adult Crime, Adult Time laws had been passed with youth offenders now facing tougher consequences for 33 offences.
He said the new offences included arson, torture, kidnapping, trafficking in dangerous drugs, rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, ramming a police vehicle while driving and attempted murder.
“The Bill also includes measures to ensure the rights of victims are prioritised,” Premier Crisafulli said.
“The new laws will allow a victim on the ‘eligible persons register’ to nominate another person to receive information on their behalf, to limit further harm caused by receiving potentially triggering information.”
The new laws come in the same week as the Queensland Police Service’s (QPS) Youth Crime Taskforce, was made permanent, renamed the Youth Crime Group, add moved to a new Command.
Police Minister Dan Purdie said the crime group would now work under the Crime and Intelligence Command, alongside the same teams fighting organised crime, child sexual abuse, drugs and serious crime and the State Flying Squad.
He said the Youth Crime Group work to target high-harm, serious repeat young offenders in crime hotspots across Queensland.
“These improvements have been initiated by the Police Commissioner and I have every confidence his decisions and new direction of his staff will only continue to drive down crime levels in our State.”
Acting QPS Commissioner Shane Chelepy said the decision to transition from a temporary taskforce to a permanent Youth Crime Group ensured the QPS had the leadership, resources and coordination required to enhance the response to youth crime in a sustainable, intelligence-led way.
“This is about embedding youth crime as a core policing priority, not a temporary initiative,” Acting Commissioner Chelepy said.
