{"id":320052,"date":"2025-12-01T06:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T06:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320052\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T06:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T06:44:14","slug":"queensland-government-considering-youth-breach-bail-go-to-jail-laws-after-hinchinbrook-by-election-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320052\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland government considering youth ‘breach bail, go to jail’ laws after Hinchinbrook by-election success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queensland government is “actively considering” harsher bail penalties for children following its weekend by-election win, in a move slammed as “hysteria” by one advocate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By-election a tick of approval for LNP<\/a><\/p>\n

A week is a long time in politics, let alone three years, and the LNP’s success at the next election is by no means assured, writes Jack McKay.<\/p>\n

The LNP claimed victory in the Hinchinbrook electorate late on Saturday night<\/a>, with a massive 17 per cent swing clinching the seat from the Katter’s Australian Party.<\/p>\n

Its candidate Wayde Chiesa campaigned heavily on the slogan “breach bail, go to jail”, a policy he said was formulated in consultation with locals.<\/p>\n

If introduced, youth offenders would face mandatory jail time for violating bail conditions.<\/p>\n

Breach of bail is already an offence for juvenile offenders, under legislation reintroduced by the former Labor government in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Government says community supports idea\"a<\/p>\n

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleije said there was community support for tougher bail laws for youth offenders. (ABC News: Sarah Richards)<\/p>\n

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the Hinchinbrook result showed voters backed the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it’s fair to say the government’s now actively considering ‘breach bail, go to jail’, considering the historic result we had on the weekend and the strong support from that community for those laws,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And not only in Hinchinbrook. We’ve seen great support [for] that policy across the state.”<\/p>\n

He said Mr Chiesa would meet with senior cabinet ministers, including the state’s attorney-general and youth justice minister, to discuss the proposal as soon as the Electoral Commission formally declared the seat.<\/p>\n

\"Debbie<\/p>\n

Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy slammed the proposal. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

‘Hashtag hysteria’<\/p>\n

Debbie Kilroy, founder of the female prisoner advocacy service Sisters Inside, was scathing in her assessment of the concept.<\/p>\n

“This is another attack by the LNP on the most vulnerable children in the community,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This is not policy, this is ‘hashtag hysteria’ by elected officials who are members of the LNP.<\/p>\n

“If a government is serious about supporting children and addressing so-called crime, then they would be providing the support required.”<\/p>\n

Qld minister praises call for children to be jailed over bail breaches<\/a><\/p>\n

The state government has not ruled out the idea, but has stopped short of committing to the proposed reform.<\/p>\n

Ms Kilroy noted crime rates were falling for young people, and said the harsher penalties would disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.<\/p>\n

“There are children now in prison for breaches of bail \u2014 it’s already happening, so, once again we have hysteria built up in our communities,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to move away from funding cops, courts and cages and fund the community.”<\/p>\n

‘Not a policy’, Labor says<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Steven Miles \u2014 whose Labor candidate received a historically low vote of just 8.3 per cent in the by-election \u2014 was asked on Sunday whether he would support the policy, but said it was too early to make a call.<\/p>\n

“Well, again, that’s not a policy. It’s another four-word slogan,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll have to see what the government proposes there before we determine our position on it.”<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Dametto’s resignation to run for Townsville mayor sparked the by-election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland government is “actively considering” harsher bail penalties for children following its weekend by-election win, in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,180380,651,38323,48,49865,153141,2732,44,79457,84,94,701,15878,7239],"class_list":["post-320052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breach-of-bail","tag-brisbane","tag-by-election","tag-crime","tag-david-crisafulli","tag-hinchinbrook","tag-jail","tag-news","tag-nick-dametto","tag-politics","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-government","tag-state-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}