General News
13 October, 2025
‘Vulnerable elderly scared’
CAIRNS Regional Council has put forward a host of solutions to the youth crime situation in the city because the Queensland Government’s ‘adult crime, adult time’ policy was not enough.
Cr Brett Moller (Div 1) has told a council meeting that the current child safety system was broken.
“From our council’s perspective, the current child safety system really characterised by fragmented pathways and poor coordination between the agencies and services, insufficient cultural safe, community-led responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, a lack of focus on addressing casualty prevention and early intervention,” he said.
“Our key recommendations are around strengthening early intervention and prevention, improved regional and remote service areas, enhancing local integration and governance and embedded cultural safety, with a number of dot points under that.
“The reason I’m raising this, this morning, is because it is frustrating for me seeing the impacts of broken families and what’s happening with our young people in terms of the justice system. We know we have high youth crime, and really that is a breakdown in my view of the family framework, where children without boundaries, without a safe and loving home environment, where they’re not accountable at home, they go out, and we’re seeing anti-social behaviours with no consequences, and that is impacting us on our council operations.
Cr Moller said the cost of vandalism in July and August was $92,000.
“I was distressed to hear only two days ago again, two young boys, somewhere between nine and 11 years of age, threatening staff at the Gordonvale library, running amok, vaping, throwing stones, not following any directions. The police had to be called and we had to have security at the Gordonvale library,” he said.
Cr Moller said he and Cr Matthew Tickner (Div. 2) recently attended an Edmonton neighbourhood watch meeting where the impact of youth crime on the elderly was stark.
“And when you go to these meetings, you see predominantly elderly people who are very vulnerable and very frightened. And you look at the statistics around the youth crime, break-ins and unlawful use of motor vehicles and you see the impact on the vulnerable people in our community. It is quite distressing.”
