Holding the NSW government to account over its promised strategies to address youth-related crime has become a key focus of the growing local campaign in relation to the issue.
With towns across the region experiencing break-ins and car thefts at rates way above the state average, attention has turned to whether the government’s amended bail laws are being properly implemented, and whether the promised investment in youth-focused social programs has been forthcoming.
These two strategies are at the heart of the state government’s much-trumpeted strategy to reduce youth-related crime.
But there are questions over whether either has been funded and implemented effectively, especially in the Northern Rivers, where the community has been hit by a perfect storm of social, economic, and environmental challenges in which youth-related crime and other social issues such as homelessness have proliferated alarmingly.
The members of a grassroots campaign set up in response to the youth crime issue is now calling on the government to fund an independent audit to examine its responses to the youth crime issue.
‘The state government said that this dual approach of tougher bail laws and increased funding for social programs would work,’ one of the leaders of the campaign, Alison Vickery told The Echo.
‘So why are we seeing statistics showing that, unlike other areas of NSW, things in the Northern Rivers are getting worse? What we’re calling for is some accountability and action from the state government. We want to see whether the amended bail laws are being applied properly, and whether the promised investment in social programs in the Northern Rivers has actually happened.’
Meanwhile, it appears that a combination of increased efforts by police, greater vigilance within the community, and the community campaign, has seen a temporary easing of youth-related crime in some parts of the Northern Rivers.
‘There’s a palpable sigh of relief that, in some places like Lennox Head, we’re not being broken into every night because people are being arrested,’ Ms Vickery said.
Repeat offender list
Speaking at a community meeting last week, police said that there were 33 offenders on the Operation Mongoose list of repeat offenders, many of whom had been arrested in recent weeks and were now either bail-refused or subject to stringent bail conditions.
Ms Vickery said that the easing of offences appeared to be related to these increased efforts by police, as well as improved safety measures by locals.
‘One of the flow-on effects of the community being so vocal is that the police have finally been given the resources they need to really take effective action,’ she said.
‘Obviously, we all hope this peace will continue, but the reality is that there will most likely be another wave, and another one’, Ms Vickery added.
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