Enough is enough: Qld to tighten youth bail laws after deadly crashes

The Queensland government appears on track to tighten youth bail laws following two separate incidents that left three adults and an unborn child dead in recent weeks. Transport Minister Mark Bailey has backed calls for harsher rules for young offenders and said tightening those laws is a top priority for the government right now.

“The government absolutely understands the gravity of this issue and we’re working through it thoroughly to have the most effective response that we can,” he said on Sunday, The Courier Mail reports. “This is not an easy issue. If it was, it would have been solved a long time ago. We’ve got to be effective and very thorough.”

It comes after the death of pedestrians Kate Leadbetter, 31, who was pregnant, and her partner Matty Field, 37. The pair were out walking their dogs in Brisbane’s Alexandra Hills on January 26, when they were struck by a vehicle allegedly driven by a teen on bail. The couple and their unborn child died at the scene.

And just last week Jennifer Board, 22, was killed when her motorbike collided head-on with a car that lost control while chasing a stolen vehicle in a vigilante-style pursuit in Townsville late Friday night. A teenage girl has been charged with five counts of unlawful use of a motor vehicle relating to the crash.

Following last month’s tragic crash, Kate’s aunt Danielle Leadbetter called on Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk to reform the state’s youth offending laws “so young offenders aren’t let out on bail and they can not go and leave families traumatised”.

“Enough is enough,” she said, news.com.au reported. “It’s 2021 and here we are again — two young lives are lost for a moment of thrills. Queenslanders need to get mad. No more loss of lives and no more families being killed because young offenders want a moment of fame.”

At the time, Palaszczuk weighed in on the matter, saying the incident was an “absolute tragedy”.

“No one should go out for a walk and not return home,” she said, The Australian reported. “It is horrific and we want answers. The family wants answers, the community wants answers and I want answers.”

The premier went on to say that she would consider further tightening the state’s bail laws in a bid to prevent something like this happening again.

“If they need to be tightened and strengthened, of course we will do that,” she said. “Last year, we tightened up those laws where there was a presumption against bail. We tightened those laws, so there’s questions that need to be asked about why those laws weren’t adhered to.”

If the new changes do go ahead, it would be the second time in under 12 months the Palaszczuk government has tightened those laws. In June last year the government introduced new laws to deny bail to repeat offenders. The move came after the government radically watered down youth bail laws in 2019.