Queensland youth crime laws to be introduced to parliament this week

The Crisafulli government will introduce legislation aimed at combating youth crime in its first parliamentary sitting week since its election last month.

Premier David Crisafulli confirmed on Sunday that the Making Queensland Safer Bill would be tabled in parliament on Thursday.

The bill will include the LNP’s signature “adult crime, adult time” policy, which would result in increased penalties for young offenders.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says, “we are not going to Christmas with the same Youth Justice Act”.Credit: Matt Dennien

“That’s a commitment we made to Queenslanders, and they will be law by the end of the year,” Crisafulli said.

“We are not going to Christmas with the same Youth Justice Act that has created a generation of repeat hardcore offenders.

“It must change, and it will change, and those laws will be tabled on Thursday. They will be debated and they will be passed by Christmastime.”

Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said briefs provided to the new LNP government showed youth crime increased 12 per cent in 2023-24 compared to the previous financial year.

Gerber accused the former Labor government of lying to Queenslanders about “the true picture of youth crime in this state”.

“They cherry-picked data and did not tell Queenslanders the full picture of crime,” she said.

Police data has shown a decrease in youth crime, with then-Labor police minister Mark Ryan touting a 6.7 per cent year-on-year reduction in June.

Gerber said the police data included cautions, whereas the figures she released on Sunday were “proven offences” provided by the Department of Youth Justice.

“For the last 10 years, the former government, the Labor government, has stood up and told Queenslanders that youth crime is going down,” she said.

“I doubt they will be honest with Queenslanders now. On the eve of an election, they lied to Queenslanders so they could cling on to power.”

Opposition treasury spokeswoman Shannon Fentiman – a former attorney-general in the erstwhile Labor government – accused Gerber of her own dishonest use of data.

“Several years ago, those criminals were caught. They’ve now been charged and their matters are finalised before the court,” she said.

“So these aren’t recent figures, as I understand, and it doesn’t really give a current picture of where we’re at with crime in Queensland.”

In the days after the election, Opposition Leader Steven Miles said the Crisafulli government “clearly [had] a mandate” to pass its youth crime legislation.

But on Sunday, Fentiman said that did not mean Labor would support the bill.

“What they had in the election was a slogan – having a bill before the parliament is very different,” she said.

“David Crisafulli said those laws were ready. I would urge him to release it so that the community can see those laws and legal experts can see those laws.

“We want to see the bill, we don’t have the detail before us yet.”

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