The Wire

An Indigenous community in far north Queensland will soon begin consultations about a proposed youth curfew. While the idea is hardly new in Australia, this plan differs in that parents of children who break the curfew will be punished by having their welfare payments withheld. Yarrabah, near Cairns in far north Queensland, is the latest community to consider imposing a youth curfew to battle juvenile crime and violence. Similar plans have been proposed for the Gold Coast and in Sydney…while Perth’s inner-city area of Northbridge actually implemented a curfew in 2003.