David Crisafulli has faced criticism for failing to name a single expert who supports his “adult time” laws that would put children – as young as 10 – in detention on adult sentences.
When the head of the state’s youth justice department, Bob Gee, told a committee last week that the prospect of longer sentences would act as a deterrent to children, he tried to back up his point using a 15-year-old study from the US.
The study Gee cited actually argued against “get tough” calls to treat children like adults.
Although the controversial legislation was fast-tracked through a week-long parliamentary committee process and looks set to pass state parliament this week, changes to the state’s criminal justice system and how it deals with children have been a slow build.
In 2020, the Labor government amended youth justice laws to create a presumption against bail for young offenders. After the pandemic, the population of children in detention in Queensland soared.
About the same time that Crisafulli and his LNP colleagues began shouting “youth crime crisis”, Queensland’s youth detention centres hit capacity.
As detention became overcrowded, staff numbers at centres plummeted. The Cleveland youth prison at Townsville, at one point in 2022, had more than 50 staff vacancies. The situation led to children being kept in isolation for long periods – hundreds of days in some cases – receiving little to no rehabilitation.
Many children kept in these circumstances go back into the community angry and unsupported. The Queensland Family and Child Commission found that up to 96% of children released from detention reoffend.
In order to justify the suspension of the Human Rights Act, the new government has to outline why it believes there is an “exceptional crisis situation”. The statement it has provided to parliament to do this, some say, is darkly comical.
It explains that the bill abolishes “the principle … that a non-custodial order is better than detention in promoting a child’s ability to reintegrate into the community”.
The data clearly shows a non-custodial order is better at helping a child reintegrate into the community, compared to a detention system with a 96% failure rate.
As total offending by young people drops to near-record lows, there is evidence that any uptick in repeat or some violent offending is occurring because of the detention system. And youth advocates, and others, are now asking if the “solution” now proposed risks putting more kids into it.
When it comes to youth justice in Queensland, up is down, left is right.
And black, it seems, is still black. As the government itself notes, its changes will disproportionately affect First Nations children.
A long, slippery slope
Labor is expected to decide early this week if it will vote for the “adult time” legislation and there is a heated debate going on inside the party. One factor at play is the number of dyed-in-the-wool Labor folk who have suddenly – now the LNP is in power – discovered their outrage at what others believe is the trampling of basic human rights principles.
While many argue the “adult time” bill is a remarkably retrograde step, it is worth noting it is a decision taken towards the bottom of a long, slippery slope.
If “adult time” puts more vulnerable kids into a failing system, it could serve to compound the decisions taken by the former Labor government that are the fundamental reasons why youth prisons are overflowing, and children are held for extended periods in watch houses.
Labor introduced a presumption against bail and removed the principle of “detention as a last resort” from the Youth Justice Act. It twice suspended the Human Rights Act, to allow police to charge children for technical bail breaches, and to make it lawful to keep children in watch house cells – where conditions have been likened to torture – for extended periods.
If the detention system appears on the verge of collapse because of Labor’s policies, the LNP is now pouring more water into a bucket that is already overflowing.
Labor’s decision on whether to support the bill will tell us a lot. Are they going to act like an opposition and vote against a clearly destructive policy? Or will they continue, in the words of one Labor MP this week, “acting like a government in exile”?
Having been turfed out of power, Labor has kept many of its former ministers in opposition portfolios where they know the terrain. That might make some practical sense for a party unused to being in opposition. But it also means there’s been no real reckoning for an election loss where lurching to the right on law and order – just like Labor did in the Northern Territory – did nothing to stop a thrashing.
It also means that we’re left with little political debate, at a time where facts and reason are needed more than ever.
What it all boils down to, it seems, is the opposition has been responsible for making a mess of youth justice. The new government is seemingly intent on making it worse.
And no one appears to be listening to the chorus of voices – the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, doctors, lawyers, Indigenous leaders, criminal justice experts – who warn that these laws are harmful and will only make the community less safe.
Ben Smee is Guardian Australia’s Queensland state correspondent
