This week Video Journalist Kris Flanders travels to the community of Woorabinda, where town members are taking it upon themselves to tackle the crime rate.

Flanders speaks with former mayor Laurence Weazel, who introduced a 6am to 6pm curfew for all children under the age of 16.

Have Your Say: Do you think imposing curfews would assist in tackling the issue of youth crime?

However the curfew has now been abolished, with citizens wanting the program to become more refined.

"At the present moment we’ve got it with our solicitors and we’re having a lot of problems around the authorised officers who are going to enforce those by-laws around the curfew. So it’s been in there since last year, and so it’s been quite a while at the moment and we’re still looking at reviewing it", says Mr Weazel.

Meanwhile other people in the community say the youth are bored and need more extra curricular activities and some are pushing for the creation of a BMX bike track.

Currently Woorabinda is involved in a pilot program by the Queensland government, which involves an 'alcohol diversion program', fostering better health conditions and reducing crime.

However the plan isn't welcomed by everyone.

"They put the alcohol management plan here on a place like Woorabinda, they’re going against contradicting themselves, they put the alcohol here in the first place and took it out. Now they’re trying to slam it again, mate what happened to the human rights?", says a Woorabinda resident.

Transcript

The Queensland town of Woorabinda lies 250km west of Rockhampton. Last year the community made headlines when youth took over the streets and ran riot, destroying property. In a bid to tackle youth crime, the local council are lobbying the State Government to impose a curfew in the town. Video journalist Kris Flanders brings us this story.

Lynette Booth, Woorabinda Justice Group: You have people who don't feel safe, people who are abused, females who are flogged by their partners. There's a lot of aggression and a lot of anger in the community, there's not that happiness that used to be here years ago when we were growing up here.

Reporter: Last year the Queensland town of Woorabinda found itself in the media for all the wrong reasons. A group of youths ran amok in the streets, leaving behind a path of destruction.

Laurence Weazel, Former Woorabinda Mayor: A lot of the times a lot of these kids are getting into trouble because sometimes the parents are sitting around a gambling school all night, and all the kids are there sitting around there with them, and they're not being fed, and so a lot of times we had a lot of break and enterings into the departmental store.

Reporter: To combat this, the then mayor of Woorabinda, Laurence Weazel, tried to introduce a 6pm to 6am curfew for all children under 16 years of age.

Laurence Weazel: The curfew is more of a deterrent or where we can channel these kids and say, "Look, what are you doing walking the streets at night for?" "Well, I've got nothing to do." "Well, OK then, we'll direct you to our structured programs."

Reporter: At present the council's proposal is still waiting approval from the Queensland Government.

Laurence Weazel: We've got it with our solicitors and we're having a lot of problems around the authorised officers who are going to enforce those by-laws around the curfew. So it's been in there since last year.

Reporter: However, last month council elections were held with Laurence Weazel losing his position as mayor of Woorabinda. His successor, Rod Tobane, has other plans and does not support the introduction of a 6:00-6:00 curfew.

Rod Tobane, Woorabinda Mayor: You'd be struggling to police it, to be honest with you. I don't think like we even have the statistics or the information on hand to be pushing this agenda. I'd rather take that one back to the community for consultation. At the end of the day I believe there was some hasty decisions made in regards to that.

Reporter: Local community radio broadcaster Bill Thaiday believes the children would benefit from programs aimed at keeping them occupied.

Bill Thaiday, Woorabinda Radio Broadcaster: They have a very short span of attention. They could be doing things, and within 10 minutes they're gone, and that means they've gone looking for things to do and probably bump into some other fellas and say, "OK, let's go and do this," and it'll be the bad things.

William Sullivan, Youth Worker: What I'm looking at is a reduction in the crime rate with the juveniles, also the truancy - a reduction in the truancy for the kids and a reduction in the petrol-sniffing, substance misuse.

ROD TOBANE: We're working on our town plan, developing economic development strategies where we can take ownership of our services. We want to create employment within our community because we believe that is the key to solving a lot of our social problems in the community.

Reporter: In the meantime, the Queensland Government has introduced an alcohol diversion program in three Aboriginal communities. Woorabinda will take part in a pilot program and if deemed successful, the program will be rolled out to other communities. Currently three residents from Woorabinda are undertaking the treatment phase of the program.

Lindy Nelson-Carr, Minister for Aboriginal & TSI Partnerships: This is a new program, a diversion program, and it's based around custody, it's based around diversion from custody and it's based around child safety matters. So we're trying to keep people from going into prison and keep children at home with their families by diverting people from what alcohol does to them.

Reporter: Woorabinda will have a zero alcohol carriage limit that will be enforced from 1 July this year. But this hardline approach towards alcohol has been met with some mixed reactions.

Bill Thaiday: They put the alcohol management plan on a place like Woorabinda, they're going against contradicting themselves, they put it in here in the first place, they took it out. Now they're trying to slam it again. Mate, what happened to the human rights?

Reporter: Lynette Booth and the Justice Group hope the new alcohol diversion program works for the community. She believes the existing alcohol management plan in the town hasn't worked because of people working against the system.

Lynette Booth: It would work if everyone did the right thing. But of course, when you've got sly-groggers around out to make money, you know, they'll try to sell as much as they can to make money for themselves. They don't care. And so it doesn't work.

Reporter: So that incidents like the tragedy of Palm Island never happen again, the Queensland police successfully rallied to have surveillance cameras installed in remote watch-houses in Aboriginal communities like Woorabinda.

Judy Spence, Queensland Minister For Police & Corrective Services: Anyone who wants to make an allegation of police brutality can have that allegation aired very clearly on the camera footage. So not only does it protect police it's also help to keep police honest because they know that every move they make in the watch-house is going to be filmed.

Reporter: In the last 12 months, the Queensland Government has approved more police officers in Aboriginal communities. An increase in officers would assist the current situation in Woorabinda.

Judy Spence: When we get the allocated number of police officers in Woorabinda there'll be 1 officer for every 100 people. Now, the ratio in the rest of Queensland is 1 officer for about every 440 people. Aboriginal communities are the most heavily policed communities in Queensland.

Reporter: The people of Woorabinda hope to move forward not only with the assistance of the Queensland Government but with initiatives developed by their own community.

Lynette Booth: We're hoping to have alcohol rehabilitation centres set up, an after-care centre that's already established here and we're working with the Queensland Indigenous Alcohol Diversionary Program - that's already commenced work. There's a lot of things that we want to see happening that'll take our people's minds off alcohol and so they get involved in activities that's going to benefit them.

LINDY NELSON-CARR: No-one wants to throw people into prison because they have got a drinking problem. Criminal acts occur when people are full, when they're over-imbibing. No-one wants to see families torn apart, no-one wants to see this continual abuse of children, particularly when it can be overcome.

Rod Tobane: I believe the community has the solutions to these issues and they need to be engaged in the due processes here to find out what their views are so we can make an informed decision in regards to these issues.

KG: That story was filmed and reported by Kris Flanders. And remember, if you want to have your say on this issue, visit our website. This week we're asking, do you think imposing curfews would assist in tackling youth crime? Still to come on Living Black - Indigenous culture inspires the traditions of modern ballet.