Queensland overrides human rights laws to lock kids in adults prisons and watch houses

Three years after the Palas­zczuk government said it was ‘solving the problem’ of keeping children out of police watch ­houses, law changes will clarify that kids as young as 10 can be detained in the facilities.

Urgent law changes allowing children to be detained in adult prisons and police watch houses will be rushed through Queensland parliament on Thursday, bypassing key public scrutiny processes.

Three years after the Palas­zczuk government said it was “solving the problem” of keeping children out of police watch ­houses, law changes will clarify that kids as young as 10 can be detained in the facilities.

Hundreds of children are held in watch houses, some for weeks at a time, because of chronic bed shortages at the state’s three youth detention centres.

Amendments, moved by Police Minister Mark Ryan on Wednesday afternoon, came hours after hundreds of people marched on Parliament House calling for more action to tackle youth crime.

“This government makes no apology for our tough stance on youth crime,” he said.

Police and Corrective Services Minister Mark Ryan. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The legislation, expected to pass on Thursday, will override the government’s own human rights laws for the second time this year.

In February children’s human rights were overridden by the Palaszczuk government when it reintroduced controversial breach-of-bail penalties for young offenders.

In explanatory notes, tabled by Mr Ryan, human rights will be overridden to allow youth detention centres to be set up in a “police watch house or corrective services facility”.

“Youth Detention Centre capacity in Queensland does not currently meet demand,” explanatory notes to the Bill read.

“Holding a child in a watch house may be less incompatible with human rights and safer than holding the child in a youth detention centre which is above capacity.”

Children are not currently being held in adult prisons, but the legislation will make it possible.

The amendments were prompted by recent legal action brought by human rights advocates wanting to test the lawfulness of children being held on remand watch houses.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that three children be urgently moved from watch houses to youth detention facilities, after the Queensland government conceded it was unable to establish if a proper order had been made for their custody.

Capacity in youth detention has been an ongoing problem for the Palaszczuk government since 2018 when it decided to move 17-year-olds from adult prisons into the juvenile system.

Youth justice experts warned the government at the start of the year that its crackdown on young offenders would make capacity problems worse.

The human rights override will last until 2026, when a new youth detention centre is due to open in Cairns.

Mr Ryan moved the last-minute amendments on an existing bill, which will allow the government to bypass usual committee process where legislation is scrutinised and public feedback sought.

The LNP and the Greens have slammed the move as a “disgrace” and “breach of trust”.

Manager of Opposition Business Andrew Powell said it was an affront to democracy in Queensland.

“On a day we’ve seen people marching in the street about Labor’s weak laws, they want to ram through major new laws without due process,” he said.

Greens MP Michael Berkman was scathing of the law changes, which he says will strip the state’s most vulnerable of their human rights.

“They‘ve done all of this so that the premier of the police minister can stand in front of a press pack and tell everyone in Queensland how tough on crime they are,” he said.

“To say they should be ashamed is an understatement, the constraints on parliamentary language don’t allow me to describe this move as I should.”

Mr Berkman said to fix youth crime issues, government should provide support to disadvantaged children.

“These are children who have extraordinarily high rates of cognitive impairment … of disadvantage, of trauma.”

Queensland incarcerates more children than any other Australian jurisdiction, with the youth prison population increasing by 27.3 per cent in the past seven years.