State member for Traeger Robbie Katter says the crisis in youth detention won't be resolved until the root causes are fixed.
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Mr Katter was speaking after the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday about the crisis numbers of children in Queensland watch houses.
These included the Mount Isa watch house where Four Corners said a 13-year-old was detained for more than a week, while another child with an intellectual disability was held for a fortnight.
Mr Katter said the current situation was worsened by a shortage of police air wing pilots to enable transfer of prisoners from Normanton and putting the system in Mount Isa under additional pressure.
"However fixing that doesn't address the underlying cause," Mr Katter said.
"We need meaningful employment in the Gulf, which is why I'm such a strong supporter of blue cards."
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Mr Katter said more needed to be done to enable Indigenous people to own housing and he also supported the need for a local diversionary centre, critical of the government plan to spend $150 million on a new 32-bed youth detention centre at Wacol, and $27 million on 16 more beds at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
"That's $4.6 million a bed," he said.
Mr Katter said the KAP youth relocation sentencing policy was a cheaper and more effective way of reforming young offenders, sending them to a low security facility in a remote location on programs teaching them to work on the land and learning life skills.
"A young person in a Queensland detention centre costs the state about $530,000 per year, under (our) structure, the cost is around $90,000 per year," he said.
"And there are a lot of good people out there the government are not using who could offer a lot to help train people."
Opposition leader Deb Frecklington has also called on the government to act.
"What we need to see is temporary accommodation built immediately where we know these children are going to be looked after and safe," Ms Frecklington said.
"You can build a mine camp in less than four days, surely we can get these kids out."
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament on Tuesday the ABC program made serious allegations and was currently under a full investigation.
"(The director-general) has advised me that the matters that were raised on the Four Corners program, that the (Child Safety Minister Di Farmer) was not aware of and that I was not aware of, will be fully investigated," she said.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
