Queensland’s government reconfirmed its commitment to keeping youth crime down since the Liberal National Party (LNP) took government in October 2024.
Incidents of wounding also fell by a substantial 16.9 percent.
There has also been a 32 percent decline in reports of crime among the original offences listed for ACAT by the LNP in December.
The number of juveniles charged is down by 756 cases against the same period in 2024.
Speaking on the Sunrise program on April 28, Crisafulli said the government was determined to continue driving down youth crime through the ACAT laws.
“They’re green shoots ... we have a long way to go,” he said.
“What that translates to is about 450 fewer Queenslanders had their car pinched and 1,033 fewer people had their homes broken into.
“We are serious about driving down what is a youth crime crisis in this state.”
On March 30, the government announced it would add even more offences to the ACAT laws, meaning children as young as 10 could receive adult sentencing on around 30 types of serious crime, including boasting of offences on social media.
Some youths have already taken offence at the premier’s stance, posting videos in allegedly stolen cars with captions like “sorry David Crisafulli” and “[expletive] the police.”
News of the videos was first reported on April 26, with Crisafulli branding the youths “little punks.”
“If these little punks think I’m going to back down in my commitment to reverse Labor’s decade-long youth crime crisis, then they’ve got another thing coming,” he said.
Fighting youth crime became a key commitment of the LNP during the 2024 state election campaign, with reports of more than 50,000 instances of youth crime being reported that year in Queensland.
South Brisbane reported more than 7,500 cases of youth crime alone.
Rallying against youth crime paid off for the LNP, who formed a majority government with 48 seats and ended Labor’s nearly decade-long reign.
