Parents who abandon their children for an “unreasonable amount of time” could face up to 3 years in jail, under suggested amendments to the Queensland Criminal Code.
Under current Queensland law, police can only give a warning to parents who abandon their children and are unable to charge them unless the child has been hurt. The proposed amendments, which Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine took to Cabinet on April 14, would create a specific new offence in Queensland that would give police the power to charge parents who are considered to have abandoned children under the age of 12 for unreasonable amounts of time. The police would be given the discretion to determine what an ‘unreasonable’ amount of time would be, depending on the circumstances of the case.
The proposed new law, which follows media reports of children being abandoned whilst their parents gamble, drink or shop, has attracted some criticism. In an opinion piece in The Courier Mail, Jane Fynes-Clinton commented that the new legislation would add to the “already overcrowded prison population”. She furthermore makes the point that the parenting skills of jailed parents “are unlikely to improve, as there is so little access to functional rehabilitation programs in jail that there may as well be none”. She concludes that sending parents to prison will not necessarily solve the social problems that have led to their actions.
There is also concern about the impact the proposed new legislation would have on the child-protection system and family support services, which are already over-burdened. The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, has stated that she did not see the Department of Child Safety receiving any further funding to assist with the increased number of children who would need to be cared for by the government if their parents were jailed.
Queensland is not the only state currently trying to make parents more accountable through punitive measures. In March, the Western Australian Parliament Upper House passed the Parental Support and Responsibilities Bill 2005. The legislation gives Western Australia’s Children Court the power to order parents who have repeatedly failed to control their children to participate in parenting programs or face a $200 fine or community work order. If the parents fail to comply with the court orders, the legislation also provides for the possibility of the parents’ welfare payments being quarantined. The Bill was passed after a number of amendments were made to the original Bill, including reducing the fine from $2,000 to $200 and removing the power to seize household goods from the families if they refuse to pay.
In NSW, Premier Morris Iemma announced in early April his plan to give the Court power to make orders against parents whose children regularly miss school. Mr Iemma said that if parents did not obey the orders, they may be jailed as a last resort. This plan has been widely criticised as being too heavy-handed and unworkable.