Queensland’s bizarre plan to jail parents

Something bizarre is going on with criminal law in Queensland. The State Government, with virtually no public discussion, has unexpectedly announced a plan to jail parents who leave their children alone while they go to casinos or pubs.

The plan, announced by State Premier Anna Bligh in April, took everyone by surprise. The response the Premier got may not be the one she hoped for. Criminal defence lawyers, and the general public, have greeted the idea with bewilderment and some alarm.

Queensland intends to change the state’s Criminal Code and make parents, who leave children under 12 alone for an unspecified “unreasonable period of time” while they go to casinos or pubs, liable for a jail term of up to three years.

As a criminal defence lawyer and as a parent, I deplore the plan, which is a draconian move that will cause more problems than it resolves.

Quite apart from the bizarre way of going about it, the move is appalling because the Queensland government wants to use imprisonment as a first line measure to deal with a perceived problem of errant parents.

The whole thing seems like a knee jerk reaction. A statistic cited in reports stated 28 children were abandoned at Jupiter’s Casino in 2007 and from that moment forward things have evolved in apparent secrecy.

I am not aware of any particular research into the problem of parents abandoning their children while they go to casinos or pubs. Obviously, it happens. How widespread the problem may be, nobody seems to know. The state government offered no research to back up its decision and the media did not pursue the key question - why do we need this draconian law change?

At present parents who abandon their children to go gambling or drinking do not face serious penalties unless the child is injured.

Under the proposed change to Queensland’s Criminal Code, a new offence will be created for parents who leave their children alone for “an unreasonable period of time” while the parents are at casinos and shopping centres.

Shopping centres too? So it will be an offence in Queensland to leave your 11-year-old alone at a shopping centre?

Premier Anna Bligh said "Cabinet has resolved to have new laws that will see parents liable for up to three years jail where they abandon their children in places like casinos or shopping centres, or where they leave them at home for unreasonable lengths of time, whether or not the child comes to any harm."

Police will have to use "commonsense, man in the street" judgments on what constitutes children being left for an unreasonable amount of time, Ms Bligh said.

And this is where the state government plan starts to unravel.

First, jail time is not the answer. It is a heavy handed and extreme measure. It will cause more problems than it resolves. How will children, whose parents leave them alone to go to the pubs or play the pokies, benefit from having their parents sent to prison?

Jail terms guarantee the family will be split and the children farmed out to relatives or foster parents. The impact on children could be traumatising beyond measure.

Children are highly impressionable. Family lawyers say children of divorcing parents often feel they are somehow to blame for their parents’ divorce. If errant parents are jailed, surely children will stress that this is somehow their fault? The measure is almost guaranteed to cause more pain than it prevents.

Unfortunately Queensland is at risk of getting a reputation for being “the nanny state” where decisions are being made with little or no community consultation, by a government that argues it knows what is best for us.

The plan to impose jail terms on parents who leave children under 12 alone is the latest incarnation of that “nanny state” mentality.

Parents who ignore their children to drink or play the pokies need intervention to curb their behaviour. Prison should be a last resort, not used as a first line punishment.

Has anyone in the State Government actually thought this thing through? If you send parents to prison, it must also impose a burden on other family members or the Department of Child Safety people if they have to arrange foster homes, or whatever, for children whose parents are in jail.

Changing the Criminal Code to punish parents who leave their children alone at casinos, pubs or shopping centres, is also fraught with apparent loopholes.

Premier Anna Bligh says it’s up to the police to use their “commonsense, man in the street" judgments on what constitutes children being left for an unreasonable amount of time.

This is fraught with potential problems too. One police officer’s definition of “unreasonable” could be radically different from another officer’s view.

The Premier spoke of jailing parents who abandon their children at pubs, casinos or shopping centres. But within days of the new law being announced, there were media reports about three children - one of them a baby only months old - being dumped at a North Queensland McDonalds while their parents went drinking at a local pub.

The children had been left alone at the McDonalds for at least two hours before staff became worried about them and called the authorities. The manager said it was common for parents to dump their children at the food outlet’s play area then leave.

Here’s the issue. Under the proposed new criminal laws, which specify pubs, casinos and shopping centres, will it be an offence to leave your children at a food outlet while you go to the pub?

If not, then charging people who leave children at pubs, casinos or shopping centres will be inconsistent. The devil, as always, will be in the detail.

The law needs consistency and I expect early cases where parents are charged with leaving their children alone will be vigorously challenged in the courts.

Recent media reports stated there were 41,000 poker machines in Queensland, with about 16,000 problem gamblers in the state. The state government reportedly expects $550 million in taxes from pokie revenue this financial year.

More “in your face” measures are needed to confront parents who neglected their children. A more focused education campaign, funded from poker machine taxes, should be the first step.

There is an alarming trend in Queensland for prison to be used as a first resort solution to issues like this. It’s an extreme and very wrong move, and will be bad for everyone.

We are seeing a worrying new trend - Queensland law making is being driven by emotion, not logic.

There’s no evidence the state considered any other measures with its jailing parents idea, just this 19th century prison mindset that will hurt the children the very people it is ostensibly supposed to protect.