The NSW Attorney General has been blasted by crossbench and opposition MPs in Budget Estimates this morning in a fiery exchange that exposed the impotence of the Minns Labor Government’s “tough-on-crime” posturing.
Under questioning, it was revealed the Attorney General could not identify any evidence or consultation that suggested more severe penalties for knife offences or expanded police knife-wanding powers have reduced crime or would ever reduce knife crime.
The Hon. Susan Carter presented BOCSAR stats showing that certain violent knife offences have actually increased since the introduction of harsher penalties for knife offences last year
Ms Sue Higginson presented evidence from the The 2023 Griffith University Review of Queensland wanding powers which found no evidence that police wanding powers had reduced the rate of knife possession or violent knife offences and had been disproportionately used to target First Nations children and young people.
No prior consultation was undertaken on youth bail reforms with legal experts or community groups
88% of children refused bail under Labor’s youth bail reforms were First Nations children
The new Moree youth remand facility announced in March this year will not be operational before the expiration of NSW Labor’s youth bail reforms next year
The LECC will have no role overseeing the implementation of knife wanding powers, in spite of their offer to do so
The Attorney General repeatedly stated he would not apologise for legislation introduced without community and legal expert consultation and admitted that the legislation will result in the further over-incarceration of First Nations people, particularly children and young people.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said “This morning was a dreadful display of the realities of a tough on crime, law and order agenda. It is not based on evidence, will not reduce crime but means this government has functionally abandoned its commitment to Closing the Gap targets,”
“More First Nations young people and children are in prison than ever before in NSW because of the headline-chasing, tough-on-crime posturing of the Premier and Attorney General in the last 12 months,”
“It is an unconscionable political failure that the drivers of crime are so widely, well and long understood and that more has not been done to date to reform our approach in NSW,”
“Being tough on crime may be responsive to radio shock jocks and be cathartic for bully-boy lawmakers but it has not, has never, and will never make our communities safer,”
“Crime prevention requires community empowerment and resourcing, therapeutic responses, extraordinary compassion and understanding and the leadership to drive it and it is the leadership that is absent,” Ms Higginson said.
