Katter’s Australian Party Deputy Leader has slammed the State Government as ‘out of touch’ after the Police Minister was quick to lay the blame on the courts for continued youth crime.
Police Minister Mark Ryan has received significant criticism after he claimed the courts “have all the tools in their toolbox - they just have to use them.”
Nick Dametto criticised the Palazczuk government for pointing fingers despite having ‘flaccid’ laws.
“It’s extremely worrying that Government, and now the Police Commissioner, feel they are entitled to pass public, and quite frankly, false judgement about how the Queensland Courts do their job,” he said.
“You can’t argue, some pretty weak sentences have been handed down in the last six years, but our courts can only work within the constraints of the law, and those Labor laws are at best flaccid.
“Labor can’t keep the judiciary shackled like a dancing bear for years and then expect half-baked legislative changes passed too late in the day to have any significant impact on crime.
“Giving the courts the tools, they need to change the course of youth crime in Queensland requires a bit more than fluffing around the edges from this Government.
“If they want to guarantee better and consistent penalties, they need to look at mandatory minimum sentences, which is something the KAP has been calling for to ensure recidivist offenders are off the streets for at least 12 months.
“The Labor Government has fallen out of touch with Queensland and reality.
“Prioritising criminals and the UN’s human rights garbage over the rights of law-abiding citizens will be their undoing.
“Victims are crying out for harsher penalties and want to see inadequate sentences appealed and I couldn’t agree more.
“Funnily enough, any appeal, whether it be from the Director of Public Prosecutions or Police Prosecutions, must first receive the consent of Government bureaucrats, and surprise surprise, those people answer to Palaszczuk Government Ministers.
“Labor are blaming the judiciary for their own failures, and that’s just gutless.
“If the Government has any intentions of making our streets safe again, then they need to get serious, running political interference and taking cheap shots at precedents they helped create helps none of us living this hell.”
