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The Forum > Article Comments > Queensland’s bizarre plan to jail parents > Comments

Queensland’s bizarre plan to jail parents : Comments

By Tim Meehan, published 13/5/2008

The Queensland Government, with virtually no public discussion, has unexpectedly announced a plan to jail parents who leave their children unsupervised.

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"Has anyone in the State Government actually thought this thing through?" In my 13 years as an economic policy officer to the Queensland Government, I found it very rare that any proposal had been "thought through." I did a high proportion of Cabinet briefs for Wayne Goss and later various treasurers. In about 90-95% of cases, it was impossible to determine from the submission the merits of what was proposed. Things were even worse after Peter Beattie became premier. My former colleague Anna Bligh is better known for ideology than analysis.
Posted by Faustino, Saturday, 17 May 2008 5:22:46 AM
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This has all the hallmarks of one of the evangelical Christian crew from Australian Christian Lobby whispering in the ears of Bligh.

It is also worth remembering that Mike Kaiser is back-on-the-scene and this is just the sort of silly populist crassness he'd dream up.

Clearly it has not been thought through at all, as most utterences that drop from any politicians lips these days fail to pass the very 'commonsense' test Bligh spruiks.

I can see the jailed single mum, three years in the slammer, her child going off to 'care' within Bligh's dysfunctional 'kiddies' department and coming out raped, pregnant and drug addicted but at least her mother had learned her lesson!

Oh yes, Queensland.... the smart state.

But not to worry, there's probably a caring school chaplain, totally unqualified, out there to help this child find her way through all the fog.

Another thought of course... this was not for 'the whitie' at all but for the Indigenous population for whom our jails seem to be empty without, and maybe that was the part that wasn't thought out.... how to keep it just for 'them' and not for 'us'.

No doubt Mike is working on that now.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Monday, 19 May 2008 1:06:36 PM
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Parliamentarians are usually people not educated in psychology or medicine or nursing or social and welfare work. They are lawyers and accountants and farmers and small business people. They really don't understand human behaviour. They are afraid and feel they may be held responsible if something goes wrong and that they should be doing something. They are anxious and reach for the first thing control freaks do when they don't have answers, they use bullying and violence.

Irrational responses to fear seems to be a continuing theme in Australian politics. Maybe they caught it from the Americans? However it arrived here we are seeing it in all State and Federal politics not just in the Queens land.

I don't suppose putting a radio control bracelet on parents ankles for home detention has been considered? The kids could play jailer. They can do all the shopping at McDonalds and go to Centerlink to bring home the bacon for the family while mum and dad watch TV all day and night. Now there's an idea. Or the kids can be sentenced to foster care while mum and dad watch TV all day and night in a prison cell - gmt prefered option.
Posted by Barfenzie, Thursday, 29 May 2008 12:11:53 AM
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Has anyone considered the possibility that Bligh et al are looking for a way to allow single mothers to circumvent the "welfare to work" intent of the previous Federal Govt? There has been a lot of hand-wringing over single mothers being forced to look for work. If they can point to a State law that prohibits them leaving the children alone and they cannot find suitable childcare, I suspect they would neatly sidestep any punitive action from Centrelink.
Posted by Antiseptic, Thursday, 29 May 2008 8:15:30 AM
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A few points I'd like to make.

The legislation, according to the article, was related to parents' who go drinking and gambling, not to work, so I don't think it will be such an issue.

Blue Cross

I agree with you on the Chaplains (unqualified) in our schools. But it was the past Liberal Federal Government who installed them, not the Qld State Government.

As a single mother, I have an issue with the way my ex-husband (Qld policeman) and his partner, leave my daughter and her stepbrother unsupervised for lengthy periods of time.

I'm really worried that under his watch, she'll end up the pregnant teenager.
Posted by Liz, Saturday, 14 June 2008 3:59:58 PM
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Well Liz, not quite.

Beattie put up $10million for school chaplains because too many principals had been raiding the cookie jar of school grant monies to pay for chaplains.

He announced the scheme in Highfields, near Toowoomba, in an effort to save Kerry Shine from Lyle Shelton, who now works for ACL in Canberra.

Following Beattie's lead, Howard then donated $165 million as a cash grant to employ largely unqualifed 'chaplains' who, in Qld at least, belong to Scripture Union, a body designed to evangelise to school students.

See this website for further details: http://www.thefourthr.info/hallofshame.html
Posted by The Blue Cross, Monday, 23 June 2008 4:02:00 PM
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