Premier Crisafulli gob-smacking laws to lock up 10 year old children, and destroy families and communities in QLD
Change the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre have denounced the Crisafulli Government’s gob-smacking laws that will mean ten-year-old children will face adult sentences and grow up in prison cells. The shameful changes will further exacerbate the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in watch houses and prisons.
The Bill introduced into Queensland Parliament today proposes to completely remove the principle of detention as a last resort and impose adult sentences, including mandatory sentences, on children. The government intends to override the Human Rights Act 2019.
Prisons are dangerous for children, causing lifelong trauma and even death. These dangers disproportionately affect First Nations children, especially 10-13 year olds, who are grossly overrepresented in custody. Just one year ago, the Queensland Child Death Review Board reported on the deaths of two Aboriginal boys in custody whose tragic deaths were preventable.
Queensland already locks up more children than any other Australian jurisdiction - the laws will make this alarming fact worse, without making the community any safer in the long term. Evidence shows that the earlier a child is locked away in prison, the more the child is at risk of being entrenched in the criminal legal system and recriminalised later in life.
The Bill breaches Queensland and international human rights standards, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. By moving to suspend Queensland’s human rights legislation in its very first sittings the Crisafulli Government has signalled a blatant disregard for laws that protect basic rights for all Queenslanders.
Change the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre strongly condemn these laws, and the Crisafulli Government’s decision to rush them through without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
The one-week parliamentary committee reporting deadline leaves no time for stakeholders to provide meaningful feedback on the long-term consequences of the legislation or its far-reaching human rights implications. We call for more time to review these laws.
Quotes attributed to Blake Cansdale, National Director, Change the Record:
“The Queensland Government’s ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ proposal takes us in the wrong direction as a society. We must seek to help and nurture children at every opportunity, particularly vulnerable children at risk of contact with the criminal legal system. The Queensland Government should be investing in First Nations-led community-based solutions that are proven to address the underlying health, social and economic drivers of offending. Instead, the Queensland Government is seeking to punish vulnerable children, some as young as 10, and is simply doubling down on a vapid campaign slogan designed to win populist votes. Our children are sacred, they are not political pawns, and their safety and well-being should never be traded for political clout.
"If the Queensland Government was genuinely committed to improving justice outcomes, it would be investing in evidence-based strategies aimed at addressing the root causes of offending behaviour. Importantly, no such strategy would involve the erosion of an individual's human rights, as is the case with the Crisafulli Government's proposal to remove the principle of detention as a last resort. The Queensland Government should be investing in First Nations-led and community-based prevention and early intervention services and rehabilitative programs. This approach would not only reduce reoffending, but it would also grow our children and our communities stronger.
“Queensland’s ‘Making Our Community Safer’ plan is a tragic misstep. The evidence is clear: harsh punitive measures for children do not reduce offending behaviour. Volumes of international and domestic evidence tell us that what works, are community-led solutions aimed at tackling the underlying causes of offending, such as poverty, trauma, and lack of access to quality services. These are the smarter and more cost-effective strategies that the Queensland Government should be prioritising.”
Quotes attributable to Maggie Munn, First Nations Justice Director, Human Rights Law Centre:
“Children belong in our playgrounds, schoolyards and our communities. It is beyond shameful that the Crisafulli Government’s first move is to condemn children as young as ten to adult sentences and prison cells. These laws are terrifying for our children and our communities, because most of the kids who will be subject to these shameful laws will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids ripped away from families.
“It is not lost on our communities that at the same time the Crisafulli Government has stripped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland of the Truth Telling Inquiry and an opportunity to address injustice, they are doubling down on laws that will see punish our children and see history repeat itself.
“Decades of evidence from First Nations communities, health experts, human rights advocates and legal organisations have shown a better way is possible for children and our communities than throwing children as young as ten in a police or prison cell. More than thirty years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, countless inquiries and reports later, it’s shameful that governments not only fail to listen to the evidence, but go against it.
“No child should ever grow up in a prison. If the Crisafulli Government actually cared about children and community safety, it would instead urgently invest in supports, policies and programs that prevent and divert children and young people away from the criminal legal system in the first place.”
Media contact:
Chandi Bates
Media and Communications Manager
Human Rights Law Centre
0430 277 254
chandi.bates@hrlc.org.au