Ninderry MP Dan Purdie was given his marching orders during a heated debate in Parliament today after the Premier failed to explain how children as young as 10 years of age are being held in the state’s maximum security watch houses.
Mr Purdie, a former Queensland Police Child Protection Officer said it was horrific to think that there were 79 children currently being detained in maximum security watch houses alongside convicted murderers, rapists and paedophiles because there is no-where else for them to go.
“The Premier, and the Police Minister, need to explain how a child as young as 10 can be held in solitary confinement for days on end, and how spending $150million of taxpayer dollars on 49 new beds in two years’ time will solve a crisis happening right now,” Mr Purdie said.
Mr Purdie said the juvenile justice crisis facing the Government did not happen overnight.
“This is a situation that has been brewing since the Palaszczuk Labor Government decided to transfer 17 year old offenders from adult jails into Youth Detention Centres that were already overflowing,” Mr Purdie said.
“They had no plan then and they were warned at the time that it was going to fail.
“We’re now seeing offenders as young as 10 being held for up to 40 days in adult, maximum security watchhouses because youth detention centres are overflowing.
“These kids are confined in isolation cells in facilities built to hold murders, rapists, paedophiles and our most violent adult offenders. There’s now reports of disabled kids, multiple suicide attempts, three kids with their fingertips cut off in cell doors, and a 16 yr old who found out she was pregnant and only moved out a week later.
“These kids aren’t angels but they should not be kept in an environment like that.
“While the Premier and her Ministers continue to point the finger and lay the blame elsewhere, our most vulnerable continue to be put at risk, by a Government that is failing abysmally.
“The Police Minister is clearly out of his depth. He is incompetent, and should resign.