Youth Crime

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:08): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Attorney-General regarding bail for youth offenders in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Sir, you might be aware that recent court statistics obtained by the opposition have revealed that youth offenders have breached their bail on more than 1,300 occasions in the past year alone. This equates to a 60 per cent increase in the failure of young people to comply with their important bail conditions in just 12 months. The police commissioner, Grant Stevens, has remarked on ABC radio, in relation to previous statistics, that:

I do think we're seeing increasing incidents of young people involved in serious crime…we do have this cohort of very young children who seem to be operating in the absence of any sort of parental control or supervision, out at all hours of the night committing offences and that is a real challenge for us. There is a presumption under the Young Offenders Act that young offenders are given every opportunity to be kept out of the criminal justice system and not retained in custody which does create some difficulties for us with some of these kids who continually come to our attention.

In addition, following the release of the statistics I mentioned above concerning bail violations of youth offenders in the order of 1,300 for the year, the police commissioner has further stated, and I quote:

I would certainly agree that continual release on bail for serious offenders would give them a sense of impunity in relation to their criminal offending…[There is also] a perception that there is an absence of consequence for those behaviours. [This] means we have to deal with those recidivist offenders time and time again.

My questions to the Attorney are:

1. Does the Attorney agree with the police commissioner's publicly stated opinion that there is a perception that an absence of consequences for youth who commit crimes and are continually given bail has become noticeable and, in his words, 'a problem'?

2. Does the state government view it as acceptable that 1,300 bail breaches by youth offenders have occurred in the last year alone, representing an increase of some 60 per cent?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:10): I thank the honourable member for his question, and his continued and ongoing interest in community safety in South Australia. In relation to youth offending, it is the case that I think the statistics show that South Australia has the second lowest youth offender rate in Australia just after the ACT but, as the honourable member has pointed out—and I think the police commissioner a couple of times has made public comment—there is a small cohort of offenders who are responsible for quite a large number of that offending. Certainly, that is something that is of concern. It is something that I have discussed a couple of times with the police commissioner, and we are looking at ways to tackle that.

Whilst some comfort can and should be taken that we have—after the ACT, which is generally a relatively safe jurisdiction—the lowest youth offending rate in the country, the fact that there are that small cohort who are responsible for such a large proportion of offending is of concern, and it is something that we have discussed and are looking at what action can be taken.