Rural
1 October, 2025
Government has betrayed rural communities : Tuckerman
Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman has accused the NSW Government of betraying regional communities suffering under a youth crime crisis.
Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman has accused the NSW Government of betraying regional communities suffering under a youth crime crisis.
Mrs Tuckerman slammed the Minns Government this week after it voted again the Opposition’s Crimes Legislation Amendment (Youth Crime) Bill 2025.
“I’m sick of the political games being played in Macquarie Street while our regional communities continue to suffer,” Mrs Tuckerman said.
“While the Labor Government worries about optics, families in towns across the Goulburn electorate are left to worry if they and their property will be safe in their homes at night.
“That tells you everything you need to know about Labor’s priorities.”
Mrs Tuckerman said the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Youth Crime) Bill 2025 had contained a range of tough measures to combat youth crime.
Those measures included:
· Expanding the definition of repeat offences beyond break and enter and car theft to include serious indictable crimes like murder and sexual assault;
· Introducing electronic monitoring and mandatory curfews as bail conditions;
· Automatically revoking bail for breaches, new charges or interference with monitoring devices;
· Elevating the voice of victims in court through victim impact statements.
Mrs Tuckerman said the proposed measures were “practical” and “common-sense” and had been designed to support police, stand up for victims and ensure offenders face real consequences.
“Labor’s decision to block these reforms shows they simply don’t care about the safety of regional people,” Mrs Tuckerman said.
“Out here we don’t have the luxury of turning a blind eye – we see the crime, we see the fear and we see the damage it causes to our communities.
“Our police are doing everything they can, but they’re being let down by weak laws and a government that doesn’t have the backbone to act.”
Shadow Attorney General Alister Henskens, who introduced the Bill to Parliament, said current laws were not working and the ‘soft’ approach to youth crime had failed all over the state – but particularly in places like Moree, Kempsey, Grafton, Casino, Coffs Harbour, Griffith, Goulburn, Albury and Dubbo.
He told Parliament earlier this year that people in regional areas were so afraid of their homes being broken into that they were sleeping with baseball bats under their beds and obsessively checking all their doors and windows were locked at night.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said NSW Premier Chris Minns had been “all talk but little action” on youth crime and regional communities were paying the price.
NSW Nationals Leader Dugald said residents in regional NSW were living in a “constant state of fear and panic” with their homes being broken into, their cars stolen and their loved ones hurt.
Member for Campbelltown Greg Warren described the Opposition’s proposed changes as “extremely costly, poorly targeted and contrary to ordinary justice principles”.
He told Parliament in August that they offered no long-term solutions to tackle reoffending or to reduce crime in the community and would result in “larger cohorts of young people being placed on remand for longer period of time”.
He acknowledged there was a ‘serious’ issue with crime – particularly with young people in specific areas in rural and regional NSW – but while immediate attention was being given to address the problem there was no immediate solution.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands