Stabbings alarm parliamentary committee

BY DOMINIQUE HARALDSON
THE death of a 12-year-old boy in Brisbane last month and the wounding of an 18-year-old man outside Erindale College last week have caused the parliamentary inquiry into youth violence to look more closely at knives, according to MP Annette Ellis.

Ellis is the chair of the House Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth which will table a report into Parliament during June sittings on the impact of violence on young Australians.

Ellis says that the apparent prevalence of knives in Australia was known long before the recent stabbings occurred, however the Committee now has greater interested in this part of the inquiry.

“I’m really upset to think that any young person feels they need to carry a knife,” Ms Ellis said.

The ABS’ Crime Victimisation survey for 2008-2009 found that rates for physical assault in Australia were 8.7% for 15-19 years and 5.2% for 20-24 years, compared with 0.4% for people aged 65 years and over.

The ACT Opposition spokesperson on family and community services, Vicki Dunne, also believes youth violence is a problem, making some early recommendations on the issue.

“I think there is violence associated with night time activities… ,” she said. “There are a lot of problems around schools with youth violence.The sorts of violent attacks that we’ve seen do put pressure on governments but also put pressure on the community to have a look at itself and see what is going on.” (12 March 2010)

Mrs Dunne believes teachers need skills to address violence and that the Government’s Department of Education should have a role in providing these skills.

“They just need to get in there and do it, rather than over promise and under deliver,” Mrs Dunne said.

Hearings by the committee in Melbourne last month took evidence from about 40 youths from different socio-economic areas across Melbourne.

Ms Ellis said, “It was very refreshing for us and had a pretty deep meaning for us as a Committee to hear that the young people were saying can you please help us stop [violence] in the first place as well as attend to other issues.”

Ms Ellis says there is a lot of work leading up to the report, particularly advertising to the community, compiling the 70 plus submissions received so far, and also drawing on the youth survey run last year that received over 1300 responses.

“We need education campaigns,” she said. “We need a whole raft of things. “We’re really interested in getting down into the psychology of the whole thing and trying to understand what’s really going on.”

The Police Federation and the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) spoke about the submissions it made to the inquiry, in particular ,the programs they are recommending to help reduce youth violence.

“I don’t think that our committee is going to be recommending a program specifically,” Ms Ellis said. “One of our reasonable considerations will be to think very carefully about the evidence we’re getting about the need for educational programs of one sort or another.”