COMMUNITY CONSULTATION ON YOUNG REPEAT OFFENDERS
WRITTEN SUBMISSION
Questions about you (please note: all information collected from this survey will not
identify people and your comments will remain anonymous)
FOR ORGANISATION RESPONSES PLEASE COMPLETE:
Name of organisation: District Council of Ceduna
Trevor Smart
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 1 of 8
What do you think are the issues leading to repeat offending by some young people?
There are a number of issues that we consider that lead young people to re-offend.
These include:
- lack of family values, family standards, and total lack of family/parental
responsibility towards youth.
- lack of family structure through misuse of alcohol, drugs, and effects of gambling
- lack of respect for other peoples privacy and wellbeing
- lack of respect for SA Police or other authorities
- unemployment rates – too much idle time
- lack of strength from Juvenile Justice System to appropriately sentence
offenders, and extremely lenient bail or release conditions.
- lack of flexibility or responsibility of education system to ensure a suitable path of
education and regular attendance at an education facility.
- political correctness often prevents appropriate consequences being handed to
Indigenous Youth.
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 2 of 8
What do you think is working well now, or has worked well in the past, to halt the cycle of
offending by young repeat offenders?
I am not sure that any program is actually working well at the moment.
Past projects that I believe had some value were:
- Work for the Dole type programs that provided for full-time employment. This then
provided for the opportunity to develop a better work ethic and team ethic, and to
instil various levels of responsibility upon individuals. The existing schemes are
similar to CDEP programs in that only 12 hours or two days of work is required,
which is essentially a waste of time for all involved.
- Crime Prevention Unit used to provide for flexible funding to enable ‘local solution
programs’ but this is now structured so all programs need to have similar
structures.
- The introduction of ‘untouchables’ – those under 10 years of age requires
reassessment, as we are now developing an offender of a younger age that
knows that the Justice System or SA Police cannot touch them
- Although politically unpalatable, the ‘stolen generation’ concept had merit. To
enable youth to have a stable home and family life, consistent access to
educational opportunities, etc. has often lead to positive outcomes for many
individuals. The seeming lack of self responsibility by particularly Indigenous
parents would not be tolerated or accepted within non-Indigenous families, and
again I feel that political correctness at times hinders effective programs and
proper management of family issues and problems.
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 3 of 8
What do you think can be done to address repeat offending by young people?
Whilst not wishing to have all repeat offenders to be serving some form of institutional
sentence, I believe that more stringent measures need to be put in place through
legislative changes that provide less flexibility for repeat offenders. An independent
review of the Juvenile Justice System needs to be undertaken, with extensive
consultation undertaken with all communities to gauge their thoughts, expected
standards, and effects of inappropriate judicial decisions on victims and communities.
Particularly in regional areas such as Ceduna, most repeat offenders are known within
the community, and the repeated incidence of the Judiciary System failing to reflect
community standards will eventually lead to community members not bothering to report
crime to SA Police, as it will be deemed to be a waste of time. This will also distort crime
statistics’ through lack of reporting and will provide an inaccurate view of issues within
an area.
A further danger (and a real one) is the fear that the community will eventually take
matters in their own hands and mete out what they see as appropriate punishment.
Whilst this is not condoned by Council, we are aware that there is an underlying level of
discontent with official measures to combat crime, and in particular repeat offenders.
Apart from the Judiciary System, an urgent review and implementation of incentives (or
disincentives) are required to ensure that youth attend school and that their interests are
the primary concern of a family unit. This may be through reductions in welfare
payments to parents if children do not attend school. This would in the end still
disadvantage the youth, so a structured welfare payment system may need to be
implemented where cash payment is substituted for education fees, food vouchers,
clothing vouchers, etc. The demonstrated lack of ‘self responsibility’ among many
Indigenous families means that these measures need to be considered, regardless of
paternalism issues, or again, political correctness.
From a local community point of view, I consider that it is discriminatory that the
treatment of Indigenous Youth is treated substantially different to those of a non-
Indigenous nature. Although we all need to remain aware and respectful of cultural
differences, I wouldn’t consider that it is culturally acceptable for youth to be abused,
neglected, and not supported within a family unit to provide for a sustainable future (ie
education, health, etc).
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 4 of 8
What more do you think can be done to address victims’ needs?
As discussed in previous points, the needs of victims and the general community need
to be reflected in the sentencing or bail conditions imposed by the Judiciary System.
It is my opinion that the Judiciary System should reflect the (reasonable) standards and
expectations of the community that its serves. If the Judiciary understood community
expectations, standards, and effects of their decisions, they may change their lenient
decision making process to provide better outcomes to victims rather than providing
many opportunities for the offender.
Improved responses by the Judiciary should also reflect improved levels of respect from
offenders towards SA Police and the community, as they will come to understand that
there is a consequence resulting from their actions.
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 5 of 8
The Government has also suggested legislation to enable courts to apply harsher
penalties to adults who commit offences in company with juveniles or who encourage
juveniles to commit offences. What are your views about this change?
We would be supportive of this concept, as there is anecdotal evidence within our own
community that older ‘offenders’ often utilise the ‘services’ of younger people to assist in
committing crimes, in the knowledge that the younger person (sometimes under 10
years of age) will not/cannot be touched by our legal system.
This inappropriate use of younger people puts them at greater levels of risk at a much
earlier age, particularly when the adults/older youth should be acting in some capacity
as a role model to the juveniles.
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 6 of 8
The Government has suggested legislation to enable courts to try juveniles as adults for
certain offences. What are your views about this change?
We would also be supportive of this concept but this would need to be limited to certain
circumstances and level of offences.
These could include:
- harm to victims
- number of repeat offences – regardless of age!
- invasion of privacy (break and enter into home)
- Level of effect on community and/or victim
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 7 of 8
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I believe that the reasons for many of our problems with repeat offenders stems from a
lack of family functionality and/or family responsibility, and simple levels of respect for
others.
From this, we need to consider making substantial changes to the way that we all react
or manage family issues and disfunctionality within family units. Federal and State
Governments in particular need to provide leadership and direction in a level of non-
acceptance of issues that affect the functionality of family units. These include:
- unemployment – a culture of reliance on welfare payments is/has been handed
down through generations. Better incentives need to be provided to ensure
people seek employment opportunities rather than accept programs such as
CDEP and other Work for the Dole type programs that do not provide for real
employment outcomes or instil any work ethic to enable entry into mainstream
employment.
- political correctness – there are obvious methods that we should utilise to assist
young people to access basic life expectations and future opportunities. Young
people in our community face many issues within their home lives such as
domestic violence, abuse, lack of basic needs such as food, clothing and
education, etc. Many of the ‘family offenders’ hide behind political correctness,
calls of racial discrimination, and cultural issues that then provide barriers for
relevant agency actions. I am not aware that alcohol abuse, abuse of young
people, substance misuse, etc. has ever been a culturally acceptable activity, and
we shouldn’t feel the need to address such non-cultural issues on a cultural basis.
We all need to deal with the symptoms of family breakdown for what they are,
and not be limited by racially or culturally motivated reasons that have no validity.
The District Council of Ceduna has been involved in developing programs for the benefit
of its general community, and in particular Indigenous people, over many years and we
consider that our track record is proof of our efforts to improve conditions and
opportunity for all people. Some of the comments provided within our response could be
taken to be of a racist or discriminatory nature, but our motivation is far from that. We
endeavour at all times to provide fair and equitable treatment and opportunities for our
entire community, but are often frustrated by levels of inaction or inappropriate action
based on political correctness or cultural sensitivities.
I feel that as a wider community (Federal, State and local) the ‘wheel has turned too far’
in that we are often stymied in our approach to issues through fear of being held up as
racist or discriminatory when the opposite is the case.
Community Consultation on Young Repeat Offenders – written submission Page 8 of 8