Queensland’s premier has told the courts “to do their job” and enforce the harsher laws she has promised in a new youth crime crackdown following the alleged murder of a mother in her home.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has pledged to introduce a suite of tougher laws to parliament in February after British mother-of-two Emma Lovell was stabbed while defending her home from two teenage intruders on Boxing Day night. She later died in hospital.
Prison terms for car thieves will rise from seven to 10 years and those who steal cars at night, threaten or use violence, are armed or pretend to be armed, are with others, or damage or threaten property will face 14 years behind bars.
“Community safety has to come first here and we stand with the community members across Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Thursday.
“And I’ll tell you now, we know a lot of people aren’t going to like some of these announcements I’m making today and I’m going to stand by them and people will be able to judge us on that at the next election.”
Judges will also have to take into account a child offender’s previous bail history, crimes and track record when deciding on bail applications and slap them with increased penalties if they boast about their crimes on social media.
“Can I say this, I’ve gotta be upfront and be frank: The courts need to do their job, the courts need to do their job,” the premier said.
The government will spend almost $10 million to speed up the sentencing of children before courts in Brisbane, Townsville, Southport and Cairns. The same amount will be spent trialling 20,000 engine immobilisers in Townsville, Cairns and Mount Isa.
Assistant Police Commissioner George Marchesini has been appointed to the new role of Youth Crime Taskforce commander and two new youth detention centres will be built in Cairns and the southeast.
Ms Lovell’s killing comes 14 months into the government’s youth crime crackdown in which laws were changed to ensure courts made a presumption against bail for serious, repeat child offenders and have the power to fit them with GPS trackers.
Ms Palaszczuk could not say if the changes proposed on Thursday could have prevented Ms Lovell’s death.
The Liberal National Party has called for breach of bail to be made an offence, while the Katter’s Australian Party has called for children to be slapped with adult sentences for serious crimes, relocated to boot camps and for people to be legally protected from prosecution for their actions if they are defending their homes.
Ms Lovell’s devastated husband Lee, who was stabbed in the back in what he called a “terrifying” encounter” at their North Lakes home, has called for policy changes to prevent other families suffering like he and his two daughters are.
“We’re not the only family to be affected by this and things need to change,” he told A Current Affair on Wednesday night.
Almost 40,000 people have signed a petition calling for mandatory bail refusal for “violent home invaders who repeat offend that use or have weapons regardless of age”.
The Lovells had reportedly been in Australia for more than 10 years but were originally from Ipswich in the United Kingdom.
A fundraiser set up for the Lovell family had raised more than $58,000 of its $75,000 target on Thursday afternoon.
© PAA 2022
