LNP’s bombshell admission over landmark youth crime laws

The new state government has made a major concession around its flagship Making Queensland Safer Laws, which were introduced today.

Premier David Crisafulli has argued the state government is “putting victims at the centre of youth justice”.

Landmark laws to lock up children for longer will further stress Queensland youth prison system the government has conceded, including forcing more children into watchhouses for a longer time.

The new state government’s Making Queensland Safer Laws, introduced on Thursday, is also explicitly in breach of international and state-based human rights law.

It has prompted legal advocacy bodies to warn they will be combing through the laws with a fine tooth comb to identify how it can be challenged in the courts.

There will also only be only eight full days, including weekends, for the proposed laws to be scrutinised.

The laws will make reality a number of the LNP’s election commitments, including imposing adult punishments on children who commit 13 categories of crime.

Under the changes a child’s criminal history will also be carried into adulthood when they are sentenced for a crime.

A youth being arrested by police in Logan. Picture Queensland Police

It will also become easier for children on the cusp of turning 18 or reach adulthood in a youth prison or watchhouse to be quickly transferred to an adult facility.

The tough new laws mean children face life imprisonment for murder, manslaughter, acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm and unlawful striking causing death.

Repeat offenders committing the most serious of car-related crimes must also be sent to jail as a minimum.

Queensland’s Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall warned the international community would be watching and the new laws risked damaging the state’s reputation in the lead up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“If we keep on the same path that we’re on right now, we’re going to be telling a very sad story to the rest of the world,” he said.

The laws outline it will be “likely at least in the short term” that the increase in jail terms for children will “further strain capacity in youth detention centres in Queensland, and may result in children being held in watchhouses for extended periods of time”.

These changes are also in “conflict with international standards regarding the best interests of the child with respect to children in the justice system, and are therefore incompatible with human rights”.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli during Parliament.

Premier David Crisafulli said the state government was “putting victims at the centre of youth justice”.

“Previously, courts were required to balance various factors with impact on the victim being only one among many considerations, this will require sentence in court to give greater regard to the impact of the victims over other factors when determining the appropriate sentence,” he said.

“This will be a government that listens and acts and a government that finally delivers a safe Queensland.”

Youth Advocacy Centre chair Damian Atkinson KC, whose organisation previously mounted a successful legal challenge against children being held in watchhouses for extended periods, said they would be looking for legal weak points.

“We will look at ways to challenge this legislation,” he said.

“If the answer was youth detention, we lock up more people than any other state, but we still got a problem.

“The drivers are things like domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health. They’re not fixed by jailing people.”