The event was attended by NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders and a host of the party’s MPs, including Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan, Oxley MP Michael Kemp and Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh.

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Local Mayors, NSW Police representatives, Indigenous leaders and security experts were also in attendance.

An additional rally was held in Armidale on Saturday, with further plans for an event in Moree on 1 March.

Mr Kemp said the rally sent a “loud and clear” message to the NSW Government.

“Our current laws are failing, and we need real change to keep our communities safe,” Mr Kemp said.

The National Party is pushing for “strong and immediate legislative reform”, and announced plans to put forward a bill to “stop repeat serious youth offenders from holding regional communities to ransom”.

The bill will include changes to the bail act to stop courts granting bail to serious repeat offenders, changes to “doli incapax”, and amending the crimes sentencing procedure act to give more consideration to the harm that is caused to the victim.

Doli Incapax is a common law principle that presumes children aged 10-13 are incapable of criminal intent.

The Deputy Leader of the NSW Nationals, Gurmesh Singh, said the bill would offer a stronger solution than the bail laws introduced by Premier Chris Minns in 2024.

“Youth crime has been a massive issue for our community and the Minns Government’s narrow approach clearly isn’t doing anything to stop repeat youth offenders from carrying out crime sprees,” Mr Singh said.

“We are hearing more reports of home invasions, car thefts and assaults.

“Violent crime is becoming alarmingly common, and our residents and families are living in a constant state of panic and fear.

“People are completely fed up and are turning to these events and rallies as a last resort to try and have their voices heard.”

Not all agree with the Nationals’ approach, with Greens MLC Sue Higginson describing the rally as an example of “shortsighted, reactionary politics driven by fear”.

“The National Party as well as Labor Premier Chris Minns are driving community fear and division in a childish response to a very serious issue,” Ms Higginson said.

“We cannot allow the criminal laws of NSW to be a plaything for weak politicians who are baiting the electorate with scare tactics.

“Where young people are engaging in crime, it is intellectual dishonesty to ignore the underlying causes of crime in favour of a political campaign of corflutes calling for putting more young people in prison and pushing increased rates of offending by those people throughout their lives.”

Ms Higginson said the Nationals’ approach to crime prevention ignores the data on youth offending.

“If we don’t listen to the actual evidence and we continue to put young people behind bars, we are turning what is a moral panic into a genuine crime spike into the future, remembering there is no real crime spike right now, that youth crime is generally trending downwards.

“Any localised variations to this trend can and should be dealt with through local responses, such as police surges and more diversionary support and services.

“We should be emptying our youth prisons.

“If we take a bold and evidence based approach to supporting young people at risk of offending, we can actually reduce the rate of young people offending, and prevent them from re-offending as adults,” Ms Higginson said.