Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the “astonishing” 17,221 cars stolen in Queensland between July 2021 and June 2022 confirmed the Palaszczuk Government’s youth crime reforms were having no impact on soaring criminal activity.

The numbers he quoted for Queensland car thefts were 6533 higher than NSW and about 2500 higher than Victoria, despite both those States having larger populations.

The reported car theft data has given Crisafulli and his LNP team more ammunition in the Opposition’s ongoing campaign to paint Labor as soft on youth crime, despite the figures not differentiating between juvenile and adult offenders.

While the figures look shockingly high, the interpretation of the data may be misleading.

Background checking by InQueensland shows the figures on a Queensland police database classified under the heading ‘Unlawful Use of a Motor Vehicle offences’.

Cases listed under this category can involve multiple offenders in single vehicles or multiple offenders committing the offence in the same stolen vehicle at different times, not directly correlating to the number of vehicles stolen.

The latest move to keep youth crime elevated in the news cycle has allowed Police Minister Mark Ryan to convey more tough messaging, promoting the Palaszczuk Government’s “toughest youth justice laws in the nation”.

“The evidence is clear – more young offenders are in custody than ever before,” he said.

The timing of the release of the car theft numbers came a day after the report by former Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson into the Palaszczuk Government’s youth crime reforms was released, 13 months after it was completed and eight months after it was presented to State Cabinet.

The report revealed the number of young offenders in Queensland released on bail, who then went on to commit more serious crimes, increased every year despite the State Government’s reforms.

The finding in the Atkinson report has led Crisafulli to renew calls to re-instate breach of bail by children, previously in place under the Newman LNP Government, as an offence to deter further acts of crime.

The Palaszczuk Labor Government continues to reject the calls, while the respected former police commissioner and report author told reporters on Wednesday that making breach of bail an offence was counterproductive

“Coming back to where it was done previously, my sense of it is that the judiciary didn’t like it. Because what they said was, firstly, that it’s double jeopardy,” Atkinson said.

“And there was a view, I think, within the judiciary that if we make laws, they should be for everyone, not just for children or adults.”