The Youth Justice Reform Parliamentary Select Committee, chaired by Sandy with three Members of Parliament (MPs) each from the Liberal National and Labor Parties respectively, has been working towards the completion and tabling of an interim report for six months. This incorporated twenty-six meetings, thirteen public hearings, nine public briefings, two hundred and twenty submissions and multiple site visits.
Sandy spoke in Parliament on 17 April 2024 regarding the untenable situation that had developed, with the failure of the committee to adopt the report, even after multiple extensions.
Please see the following statement released on 18 April 2024 by Sandy:
“As Chair, I have endeavoured every step of the way to work patiently, impartially, respectfully and collaboratively with both sides of the House to achieve a balanced, nonpartisan report on many contentious issues. This in an extremely difficult environment of heightened media and politicking with the upcoming elections.”
Prior to commencing the drafting of the interim report, the committee had workshopped the content on three occasions.
“Even though there was consensus within the committee that Queensland’s youth justice system is not meeting community’s expectations with regard to community safety and the rehabilitation of children and young people and that earlier intervention is required, MPs views on how best to address this have proved polarising. As a consequence, I sought to achieve compromises in an effort to reach a bipartisan agreement, which consistently has been asked for by Queenslanders whether it has been at public hearings or otherwise.”
“These compromises have led to five or six recommendations that required further work, and I had hoped these would have been refined should my request to Parliament to revert to standard voting rules have been granted,” she said.
“This from my understanding was the only way to ensure that the interim report would become public as expected by Queenslanders,” Ms Bolton said.
Since the release of the draft report a month ago, Ms Bolton had repeatedly asked fellow committee members to articulate in writing what they wished to delete, amend or insert into the report, including recommendations, for consideration. Where received, they have been incorporated, however there have also been broad statements of objection which have been difficult to translate into specific amendments with requests to the writers to articulate further either ignored or brushed off.
“Despite the workshops, multiple meetings and extensions over a number of weeks to consider and approve the draft interim report, at the adoption meeting the report failed to achieve a majority under the current voting rules, which was deeply saddening. This, even though the ability was still there to raise any concerns via a statement of reservation or dissenting report, which is standard in all committees.”
“An outcome where there is no report tabled, especially given that we have developed and agreed on many substantive comments and recommendations, is unacceptable. It is for these reasons that I regretfully stood to seek the parliament’s support to amend the voting rules,” said Ms Bolton.
The voting rules for the Youth Justice Reform Committee provide that any question like the adoption of the interim report recommendations must be decided by a majority of the votes of committee members present and voting, plus one other member. This differs from the usual parliamentary committee voting rule that a motion be decided by a simple majority.
“This has been one of the hardest requests I have ever made in Chamber, as I genuinely believed that with MPs focused on greater safety for our communities, a bipartisan approach would be, as committed to, achieved. Even if there were components disagreed to, at least to ensure that the interim report was tabled would reflect this intent. It would also have shown transparently the areas agreed, as well disagreed to, and the reasons why there is some urgency with recommendations that needed to be implemented as soon as possible. There is no valid reason to block, stall or put barriers to this information reaching public domain,”
Instead of the request being granted, Leader of the House, Mick de Brenni MP moved a motion to dissolve the Youth Justice Reform Committee, which was carried 49 to 30, with the Chairs draft report tabled today by the Clerk of Parliament, available in the Tabled Papers database on the Parliaments website.
Ms Bolton has now been appointed to the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, along with the Community Support and Services Committee.
“There has been over six months of work by Parliamentary staff and MPs at cost to taxpayers, efforts of all who submitted including victims and our frontliners, as well the many who have attended public hearings. Even though I am disappointed at what has occurred, that the results of this work is now public is positive news, and I look forward to seeing action as a result from Government in the interests of greater safety now, and into the future,” said Ms Bolton.
Even though Ms Bolton requested an amendment to the voting rules, it will not diminish her efforts regarding broader committee reform. In fact, it reiterates the importance of moving to a system that works as a norm for agreement, versus disagreement.
“You can only do this with practice, and as we have seen, doing so infrequently makes it difficult for some MPs to move from combative conduct to working collaboratively. This is especially important when it comes to such critical issues such as youth crime, which if not addressed appropriately, can lead to even greater trauma for our communities.”
To view the draft interim report mentioned in the above, please visit https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tp/2024/5724T612-1B7E.pdf
Now that the draft recommendations are in public domain, Sandy will continue to advocate for action on these from Government. In addition, her efforts, beginning five years ago, for broader reform of the Queensland Committee System.
Further information
To view a copy of Sandy’s full speech in Parliament on Thursday 17 April 2024, please visit www.sandybolton.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/17-04-2024-Sandy-Bolton-MP-Speech-Youth-Justice-Reform-Committee.pdf
For our previous Noosa 360 updates on Crime/ Youth Recidivism, please visit www.sandybolton.com/?s=Crime
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