[Greens-Media] Stopping draconian PBO laws from affecting minors is just the start

[Richards, Kirsten]

Hon Alison Xamon - MLC for East Metropolitan Region - October 20th, 2010
 
Greens WA MP Alison Xamon has urged the Western Australian State Government to abandon plans for Prohibited Behaviour Orders, which are likely to be debated in the Legislative Council this week. 
 
PBOs, applied by a prosecuting authority on top of a sentence, can have the effect of criminalising normal behaviour for the person subject to the order, such as catching public transport - and could be used against people as young as 16.
 
Ms Xamon said PBOs are based directly on the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders that failed spectacularly in the UK to reduce crime.
 
"The PBO laws not only make normal behavior illegal - they will compel courts to publish photographs and names of offenders and identify the suburbs in which they live," she said. "How could publicly branding a child aged 16 or 17 a criminal possibly assist in rehabilitation?" 

"Anyone with half a clue would be aware that any information published on a public website in effect is there to be retrieved at any time in the future.  Once material appears on the web it essentially never goes away.  How does permanently publicly naming juvenile offenders sit with the principle of enabling young offenders to learn from their mistakes, grow up, and move on with their lives?"
 
Ms Xamon said PBOs would make it difficult for young people to find employment and housing, which could increase the likelihood of re-offending in the future.
 
"I have included a series of amendments that will, if accepted, ensure these laws can not be used against people under 18," she said. "The Greens are opposed to these laws outright - they are counter-productive and completely over-the-top - but as a first step we want to make sure they are not used to ruin the lives of young people." 
 
Ms Xamon, who is responsible for the Youth portfolio, said the laws completely ignore the fact that people under 18 are children in the eyes of the law. 
 
"It would ultimately infringe on the right of young people to gather in public. A PBO can stop someone from engaging in a whole range of behaviors that are completely legal under normal circumstances," she said. 
 
Ms Xamon said another disturbing element of PBOs is the tendency of the "naming and shaming" component to encourage vigilante action.
 
"The laws allocate no additional resources to enforce the Orders - leaving it, we can only assume, up to the public to monitor the site and report breaches," she said. "But what guarantee is there that people monitoring this public website will confine their response to reporting breaches? This is a genuine concern."
 
The Law Society of Western Australia have said PBOs are "destined to fail" in Western Australia. The Aboriginal Legal Service has condemned the legislation and WA Police Minister Rob Johnson, when Opposition spokesperson for Police, told The West Australian that Anti-Social Behaviour Orders had failed in the UK and were not needed in Western Australia. 
 
Ms Xamon said if the State Government is really interested in fighting crime it would be seriously investing in intervention programs designed to improve the behavior of young repeat-offenders rather than pursuing PBO's as a cheap, political stunt.