The early-morning quiet of south Moree is punctured by competing sounds: the incessant whine of a dirt bike, as its helmet-less rider completes never-ending circuits of the otherwise empty streets; and the cheers and laughter spilling from the open door of a nearby gym.
It’s Moree in a microcosm: the chaos embodied by the street racer, and a well-intentioned morning basketball session.
“We have to get up at 6 o’clock every morning,” says 13-year-old Bailey, who’s been training with his friends at Moree’s PCYC gym for two years.
“The first few weeks it was a bit hard, but now we’re getting there,” he says.
Bailey goes to bed at 7pm the night before the basketball sessions. The early start is the point, says the manager of the Fit for Life program, Tayla Macey.
“It deters them from wanting to walk the streets late at night, causing crime,” she says.
“We don’t have a lot of crime from the kids that participate.”
The small town is in the spotlight because of a spike in robberies, break-ins and car theft, including offences committed by those on bail for similar crimes, and an accompanying fad — some of the worst crimes are filmed and shared by those committing them.
Youth crime is hardly unique to Moree, but it is an extremely sensitive issue here in a town where almost 22 per cent of its 9,000 residents are Indigenous.
“Let me just say that many of these children are coming from lives which aren’t that positive,” says Moree’s Mayor Mark Johnson of those committing crime.
“So they can’t be blamed for everything.
“Somehow as a community, as a state, as a nation, we’ve got to turn their lives around.
“It is very much a social problem. It’s a whole-of-community problem for our town and all regional New South Wales.”
A high-visibility police operation has been coupled with a NSW government trial of new bail laws.
The changes are designed to make it easier for magistrates to keep repeat offenders aged between 14 and 18 in custody and would see those who post crimes online face a two-year jail term.
“We understand that jail is not the answer,” says Cr Johnson, “but now, where you have repeat offenders out on bail for repeat offences in the same space, what’s happening isn’t working.
“Unfortunately, we find ourselves in need of a circuit breaker.”
Falling in with the wrong crowd
One local Indigenous woman, who ABC can’t name for legal reasons, says her 12-year-old son already has multiple convictions for break and enter and car theft.
She says he fell in with the wrong crew after disappearing from home each evening.
“We didn’t even know who he was with,” she says.
“He just got out. Sometimes he’ll jump out the window without us knowing.”
The mother believes her son’s behaviour stems from being bored.
“There’s nothing at all for the youth around here,” she says.
“That’s probably why they all do it.”
She thinks the new bail laws will help.
Incarceration a failed method
Mekayla Cochrane, Gomeroi woman and councillor with Moree Plains Shire, says one of the big issues in Moree is a lack of diversions for Indigenous children.
She grew up in south Moree.
“There was so much more infrastructure and parks down this end of town and we sit here today with paddocks and dead grass,” Ms Cochrane says.
“What can services and government be doing to provide better opportunities?
“I feel like we’re letting young people and their families down.”
She says harsher penalties won’t solve the underlying issues.
“It’s always punishment and consequences and it’s proven not to be the approach to be taken,” she says.
“It needs to be more support around families — that wraparound, that holistic support — not just for the young person, it’s their family and the community that we all live in.”
South Moree resident and Gomeroi man Lyall Munro says punitive methods have been historically ineffective.
“If you’re found guilty of reoffending whilst on bail, if you’re found guilty of the new crime of posting and boasting, the only alternative is jail,” he says.
“That’s not a real alternative we need.
“[We] shouldn’t be even discussing methods that have failed in the past.”
Crime victims want ‘compassionate’ response
One of the few commonly accepted positions in Moree is that the current approach is not working. On paper at least, more than 50 agencies are trying to help the community.
“We’ve got to draw a line in the sand,” says local cafe owner Shane Brooker.
Mr Brooker and his wife Susan were attacked in their home last year. He was knocked unconscious during the attempted robbery.
“A violent home invasion where you can see a knife and you can see people coming toward you – the terror of that experience I don’t think that will ever leave us completely,” says Ms Brooker of the lingering trauma.
She works as a counsellor in the town and says the violence affects her clients regardless of race, including children as young as four.
“What I noticed most is even in the little children, that there’s an elevation in anxiety, feeling scared, unsettled, unsure, unsafe.”
She doesn’t think harsher laws will solve this problem.
“I think that a punitive approach is not the answer. I think a compassionate approach is the answer,” she says.
“I’m also feeling a sense of helplessness that I don’t know how we can kind of fix this problem, if ‘fix’ is the right word, how we can collectively start to work on this problem to turn everything around in a more positive direction.”
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