2025-02-24
The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research released a report on 18 February that shows the Minns Labor Government’s harsher bail laws, harsher penalties and increased prison time for young people is increasing the number of people on remand without reducing the rate of crime or offending in the community. A rally organised by NSW National Party leader Dugald Saunders in Kempsey, calling for further criminalisation of young people will not reduce crime and is shortsighted, reactionary politics driven by fear.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said “The National Party as well as Labor Premier Chris Minns are driving community fear and division in a childish response to a very serious issue. We cannot allow the criminal laws of NSW to be a plaything for weak politicians who are baiting the electorate with scare tactics,”
“Where young people are engaging in crime, it is intellectual dishonesty to ignore the underlying causes of crime in favour of a political campaign of corflutes calling for putting more young people in prison and pushing increased rates of offending by those people throughout their lives. It is also deeply racist given the over representation of First Nations young people this is impacting,”
“The data shows that a year on from the Premier saying he will lock up more young people, the only result is that more young people are in prison, it has not reduced crime. Now, NSW Labor seem committed to extending these draconian laws for another 3 years with more young people in prison being the only evidence they care about,”
“It is telling that Supreme Court judges are among those who are calling out these laws as ‘draconian’, ‘unfairly discriminatory’, and ‘ham-fisted’. It is an extreme rebuke of these laws that senior judges, who, let’s face it, rarely speak out, are so clearly refuting the political fear mongers in the NSW Parliament and warning about the dangerous nature of these laws,”
“If we don’t listen to the actual evidence and we continue to put young people behind bars, we are turning what is a moral panic into a genuine crime spike into the future, remembering there is no real crime spike right now, that youth crime is generally trending downwards. Any localised variations to this trend can and should be dealt with through local responses, such as police surges and more diversionary support and services. Forcing young people into the criminal justice system early in no uncertain terms leads to more serious criminal offending in their adult years, and waging a politically fuelled war against troubled young people is ”
“We should be emptying our youth prisons. If we take a bold and evidence based approach to supporting young people at risk of offending, we can actually reduce the rate of young people offending, and prevent them from re-offending as adults,” Ms Higginson said.