Much fanfare has been made by the government this morning about a new set of data to be released monthly that Premier David Crisafulli says can be used to track his progress against a major election pledge.
Crisafulli promised during the first televised debate in October that he would reduce crime victim numbers in his first term, or resign as premier (later watered down to a per capita rate while denying this was a broken pledge).
But despite pinning most of their campaign for government on what they dubbed a “youth crime crisis”, the government won’t include the largest portion of youth offending in the new figures – also unable to be compared to previous datasets.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has released victim numbers.Credit: Dan Peled
Victims of the “other theft” category, which includes stealing from homes, businesses, vehicles and other places, will not be included in the figures despite accounting for 147,877 offences and having the largest year-on-year increase.
The recently released 2023-24 police crime report noted this offence category made up 51 per cent of all offences against property and almost one quarter (the largest single category) of offending by children.
“Other theft … has consistently been the most prevalent offence type for child offenders every year since 2014–15,” the report noted.
“Tens of thousands of Queenslanders are no longer considered victims in the eyes of David Crisafulli,” Opposition Leader Steven Miles said in a statement.
“His victim data isn’t worth the paper that it’s printed on because he’s cut corners, cherry-picked, and removed offences that should matter.”
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