Three mayors from the Alliance of Western Councils have recently met with the State Police Minister, with youth crime in the region at the top of the agenda. 

Mayor of Bogan Shire Councillor Glen Neill; Mayor of Bourke Shire Cr Barry Hollman; and Narromine Shire's Cr Craig Davies all had a meeting in Sydney with newly-appointed Police Minister Yasmin Catley - with a simple message, "Something needs to change." 

Holman told the Western Plains App he told the Minister he was "open to ideas" about what programs the Government could implement. 

"Our police force here in Bourke does a wonderful job, and it must be very frustrating when they see repeat offenders who keep going out one door and keep going out the other," Cr Hollman said.

"We would just like to see a system where if you do something wrong, you have to be responsible for that, and it's a system where you are told this is right and this is wrong. At the moment, they are just not told anything," he said. 

Bourke Shire Council have just passed a motion to write to government ministers expressing their "absolute opposition" to an increase in the age of criminal responsibility from ten to 14 years. 

Councillor Robert Stutsel, a former police officer in the town, put forward the motion. 

In December, the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, led by Mark Dreyfus, released a report recommending Governments in every state and territory raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. 

Holman told the Western Plains App, "We believe that when someone is ten years old, they know the difference between right and wrong." 

"Now, don't get me wrong, we do not like to see young children incarcerated, but we need to make sure that if they do the wrong thing, they need to be made aware of that. Otherwise, you just see repeat offending". 

"There has got to be some reason why our young children are out at night on the street," he said  

"There has got to be something wrong with their home life; they must feel safer out of the streets, which is a very sad concept for young children. We need to ensure they feel safe at home at night so they are not out causing concern on the streets. I'm open to ideas about what to do". 

Earlier in the year Bourke's Maranguka Working Group, a gathering of elders and agencies committed to working with the young people of Bourke, with police reporting a 72 percent downturn in youth offences over the summer school holidays compared with the same period in the previous year. 

Hollman said he was also concerned that when young people are incarcerated, nobody from the Government or any agencies gives them enough help when re-integrating into society. 

Western Plains App understands that Narromine Mayor Craig Davies put forward ideas on how to end the "crime-poverty cycle," and Bogan Shire Mayor Glen Neill told the Minister he was concerned that courts were too readily giving bail to defendants who had multiple charges and that those defendants then went on commit further crimes while on bail. 

ABOVE: Yasmin Catley: Image: NSW Parliament.  

Hollman said he found Minister Catley very receptive to their concerns. 

"She was very obliging and listened to everything we had to say," he said 

"She said she had some ideas of her own to tackle these issues, which she would look to implement but wasn't yet in a position to say what these were." 

In a statement Police Minister Yasmin Catley said “Dealing with these difficult social issues, requires a long-term multi-agency and community-led approach, so I welcomed the opportunity to sit-down with these local leaders and to get their input and ideas.” 

“The NSW Police Force’s Youth Command, along with Central North Police District, are actively-engaged in programs for both prevention and intervention strategies for young people who are at-risk of entering the criminal justice system,” she added. 

The ultimate goal, she said, was to reduce offending, without recourse to imprisonment. 

“Ultimately, the aim is to steer them away from crime and build their engagement with education and employment opportunities within the community."