Youth Crime

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:50): I rise to speak on a matter that has been of great concern to the South Australian community and seems to be increasingly so in recent times, and that is the very important issue of the youth crime problem in South Australia. Alarming new court statistics have revealed that youth offenders have breached their bail on more than 1,300 occasions in the past year, as I outlined in question time, which reflects the true extent of our state's youth crime crisis.

This data, which was released by the Courts Administration Authority, indicates a significant and unacceptable increase in the failure of young people to comply with bail conditions, from 857 offences in 2021-22 to 1,375 in 2023, a rise of some 60 per cent. South Australia's youth justice system has been overwhelmed, with close to 6,000 cases—a 50 per cent increase since 2021—with offenders as young as 10 facing court, including a 14 year old who is subject to no less than 131 charges.

The opposition is deeply concerned that youth crime is skyrocketing, due to the current Labor government's insufficient approach to law and order and failure to deal with recidivist offenders. I wholeheartedly concur with Police Commissioner Grant Stevens' take on the matter, who told the media in the wake of these recent revelations:

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 consequences for those behaviours. [This] means we have to deal with those recidivist offenders time and time again.

We know that our police officers are becoming increasingly frustrated at being powerless to do more to protect South Australians, and this is a situation that is not a new development by any means. In September last year, Commissioner Grant Stevens was on radio regarding escalating youth crime and he said:

I do think we're seeing increasing incidents of young people involved in serious crime, but I do want to provide context that I think the vast majority of young people do the right thing. They don't come to the attention of police. But 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 Youth 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.

I requote that today because of the significance of the police commissioner making such statements about the problems we have.

My question of the government is: being fully aware of this dilemma and this difficult situation, what is being done to address the problems associated with this specific cohort of young people? Why has not anything substantial transpired to combat youth offending if it has been known for a considerable amount of time, now that the current system appears to be just not sufficient?

The opposition has been calling for an urgent review to address penalties and breach of bail issues. Police cannot be expected to continually arrest the same children or same minors for the same crimes, only to see them released back into the community, putting unsuspecting South Australians at risk. How many chances is enough?

The government needs to take the escalating youth crime issue seriously and, although I commend the fact that it has finally abandoned any move towards raising the age of criminal responsibility, it is clear that youth gangs are running rampant and the state government is not in control of this issue.

The people of our state deserve a far more proactive approach to tackling this problem, and I would like to see some immediate action from the government. This is a very important issue facing South Australians. I have heard talkback radio, as other members would have in recent times, saying that particularly the elderly—there are a few elderly people that I personally have heard say that they are concerned about going to the city on their own, that they avoid it if they can. This is not the South Australia I grew up in. It is not the South Australia that we should expect, and I implore the government to act on this as soon as possible.