- Senator Malcolm Roberts is an outstanding,
highly intelligent and very well credentialed
one nation Senator from Queensland.
He wrote to me recently about his visit to Townsville,
interestingly, and I think this is a universal problem,
he had met with a group of locals
and the most significant topic discussed
was the heartbreak around juvenile crime.
It's a massive issue across Australia this.
What leads to it?
How do you address it?
Senator Malcolm Roberts joins us from Queensland.
Malcolm thank you for your time.
So you met with locals, were they men and women or only men?
- Men and women, they've got the...
Most of the committee is men,
but they've got a woman who's looking after them
in terms of making sure their governance is correct
and she's an integral part of it.
- So this is...
- But it's also a black and white.
- Yeah, indigenous and non-indigenous.
And you say they were passionately committed
to finding a way for Townsville to take ownership of,
and responsibility for their next generation
of up and coming adults.
So they understand the urgency of the situation
for Townsville youth.
- Yes, they certainly do.
And you said it exactly correctly, Alan,
because these people have seen failures in governance,
they're are tired of the governance.
The government itself up here the labour machine
is suppressing people's voices.
I'm talking about public servants, prison officers, police,
detention centre officers,
and what they've suddenly realised that the people,
on the ground in Townsville, the citizens of Townsville,
that they have to do it themselves.
They cannot rely upon this labour machine
'cause labour and the machine up here
wants to look good, not do good.
And they're just fluffing around the edges.
- Yeah, a hundred percent curriculum.
What are the causes do they think of juvenile crime?
I mean, I think of this.
I think well have, we undermined the family.
Many of these young people, products of parents
who are basically unqualified to deal
with the wellbeing of children.
There's no training for parenthood and it's surely a mistake
to believe anyway that government can solve the problem
but the government helps create it.
So what do they say is the cause of this?
- It's multifaceted, Alan, you're exactly correct.
The Russ Butler, who is a very impressive
Aboriginal in Townsville and an elder.
He says that one of the key issues
is the lack of parental guidance from a very young age.
They're basically missing.
The second thing is there's a lot of unemployment up there
because of, for example, electricity prices in Queensland
are ridiculously high,
and they're driving manufacturing jobs,
and even agricultural jobs,
shutting things down.
- There are jobs in agriculture, Senator Malcolm,
there are jobs.
This is Senator Malcolm Roberts.
There are jobs in agriculture
do these people genuinely want to work
or do they actually live by the culture of today,
which is put my hand out
and government will give me someone else's money.
- Well, it is patently that Alan,
but it's also the fact that there are safe houses
and bail houses here in Townsville.
And they're supposed to be under a curfew,
but the curfews are just completely disregarded.
And the kids, the young men get on their mobile phones
and organise from their bail houses
and safe houses where they're going to raid
that night and the next day.
So what we need is discipline, but we also need them.
And this is the beauty of this programme.
It's called one community, one standard,
Jeff Adams and Russ Butler, and four other men.
And as I said, that female in the staff,
what the beauty of it is,
they can look at this in a comprehensive way.
They don't just want to punish kids.
Some will need that,
but they want to bring them back...
- But you mentioned,
you mentioned discipline.
I mean, discipline,
we've taken discipline out of the classroom.
Do these people understand that
there are community standards and that they've got
to really live by those standards?
That's the first step.
I mean, if education fails them,
is employment training adequate?
- You're right on the track Alan.
One of the things they're talking about
is one community, one standard.
That's the name of the entity that group they've formed.
And what they want to do is to get the elders involved,
also the victims of the crimes
and make sure there's responsibility
put on the actual perpetrators of the crimes,
the criminals themselves,
because then there'll be greater,
greater responsibility.
Maria Montessori showed these over many, many years.
You know, the famed educator, I'm sure, she showed
these basic principles work successfully,
regardless of the culture,
regardless of the society.
They work worldwide with all humans.
And these people are wanting to put this into practise.
They know it works because Russ Butler
who's an Aboriginal elder in the group has done it himself,
taken people back country, on country.
They call it, and they've sorted these kids out
and they've been rehabilitated
and they want to get previous people
who've rehabilitated back to do the work with them,
but they can't get the funding.
They can't get the proper governance
because this Paluszczuk machine,
the labour machine up here
is just only interested in looking good, not doing good.
They won't address the hard issues, Alan,
they're just tired.
- Good on you.
I mean, basically it's called going back to the future.
We've got to reinstate some of the values of the past
that we've overturned.
I think.
Good to talk to you, Malcolm.
There he is the one nation Senator.
That's a universal problem.
Isn't it?
The one nation Senator from Queensland, Malcolm Roberts.
(whooshing)