‘The gig is up’: More offences to be added to ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws

Premier David Crisafulli told parliament on Tuesday that additional offences would be added to the state’s “adult crime, adult time” laws – the election campaign centrepiece that aimed to punish young offenders with adult-style sentences.

Thirteen offences were part of the original legislation, including murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm, robbery, burglary, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

But there was community outrage when a 10-year-old boy allegedly stabbed a supermarket worker in a random attack in January, with critics noting that attempted murder had not been included as an “adult crime, adult time” offence.

David Crisafulli told parliament he was confident his youth crime laws were working.Credit: Jamila Filippone

Rape, attempted murder, aggravated robbery, torture and arson were among the offences to be added in the next tranche of changes.

While Crisafulli was confident the reforms were working, he noted the high rate of recidivism among young offenders and said early intervention and rehabilitation would also be boosted.

“With these laws, serious offenders will be brought to justice, but we also hope they will be reformed,” he said.

Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said experts had recommended another 20 offences be added, with more offences still being considered.

“We will not stop strengthening our laws,” Gerber said, accusing the former Labor government of being weak on crime and still divided over the need for reform.

The government introduced legislative amendments to take the total number of offences covered by ‘adult crime, adult time’ provisions to 33.

Yesterday, Police Minister Dan Purdie visited a Brisbane police station and revealed an impending crackdown on young offenders who rammed police cars.

Purdie said there had been 53 instances in the past year of police vehicles being rammed and claimed it was “a crime that is unique to Queensland”.

He told young offenders “the gig is up”, foreshadowing a maximum jail term of 14 years for those convicted of the crime in future.

“I’ll be running the ball up hard on ramming police vehicles,” he said.

Purdie expected parliament to refer the amendments to a committee for further consideration.

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