Opposition leader Steven Miles hints at youth crime backflip

Labor’s support for the government’s “adult crime, adult time” laws is up in the air Opposition leader Steven Miles says, despite previously signalling they wouldn’t stand in the way.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles. Picture: Richard Walker

Labor’s support for the government’s tough youth sentencing measures is up in the air Opposition Leader Steven Miles has said, despite previously signalling they wouldn’t stand in the way.

The Opposition has also called on the new LNP government to release the “adult crime, adult time” laws as soon as possible in a bid to aid transparency, despite being the same party that slipped its own harsh youth justice laws through parliament without scrutiny.

Mr Miles, in the days after the bruising election loss, told ABC Radio Brisbane, the LNP had a “strong mandate” for its “adult crime, adult time” policy.

“I don’t think you should expect us to be opposing what was clearly the policy they took to the election,” he said.

But Mr Miles on Monday said the Opposition didn’t know “what else would be in the laws” and would not indicate if the Labor would support the legislation.

The laws, to be introduced by the government on Thursday, will change the Youth Justice Act to ensure children committing serious crimes including murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and dangerous operation and unlawful use of a motor vehicle would be sentenced as adults.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has vowed to have tougher youth crime laws in by Christmas.

“I’ve certainly indicated that we accept that the increased sentences for certain offences for youth offenders was taken to the election, but we’re yet to see what that looks like in practice, and what else is in these laws,” he said.

Labor will ultimately need to decide if it will vote for or against laws which would require teenagers to be sentenced to a minimum mandatory sentence of life if found guilty of murder.

“When we see them, we’ll be able to determine what kind of scrutiny is necessary,” Mr Miles said.

“But if they are wide ranging then it would, of course, be appropriate for stakeholders and experts to tell to tell Queenslanders what they think will happen when these laws are passed.”

The LNP’s marquee “Adult Crime, Adult Time” laws--- which includes allowing judges to sentence children who commit serious crimes to the same jail time as adults — will go through just a week of the usual scrutiny process.

Under usual practice of the parliament, bills were scrutinised by committees for about six weeks — with experts, peak bodies and other stakeholders able to pick apart the proposal for potential weaknesses.

The former government breached the regular scrutiny process on a number of occasions, most controversially in August last year when it pushed through 48-pages of last minute changes to override human rights law in order to lock up kids in watch houses for indefinite periods.