Queensland’s police minister, Mark Ryan, says the controversial bid to override the state’s Human Rights Act and charge children who breach bail is due to a “life and death situation”, prompting backlash from experts who say the laws are unlikely to save lives.
On Monday Ryan tabled the proposed youth justice legislation that would make breaches of bail an offence for children. Along with the new bail laws, he submitted a statement that acknowledged they were not compatible with human rights or international standards.
Legal experts and human rights organisations have rebuked the new measures.
Ryan justified the government’s approach on Thursday, saying the reforms were for “the greater good.”
“There are people losing their lives. This is a life and death situation,” Ryan told reporters.
“So yes, I think in the current circumstances, the greater good … the human rights of the majority should prevail over those who are committing crimes.”
Ross Homel, an emeritus professor of criminology at Griffith university, said the minister’s comments were “smoke and mirrors” and the legislation will not have a deterrent effect.
“[The new bail laws] will not make the community safer,” he said. “Overriding the Human Rights Act is a travesty of justice. It’s ethically unjustified, completely vacuous and awful.”
Criminologist and the Leneen Forde chair of child and family research at Griffith university, Silke Meyer, said Ryan’s comments were “disproportionate” and did not reflect the reality.
“The vast majority of youth crime does not involve people dying,” Meyer said.
“I understand there are safety concerns but making breach of bail an offence is just another pipeline into the criminal justice system.”
Meyer said cases of children breaching bail were over-reported in the media.
“It doesn’t make for an exciting media story to talk about youth offenders who comply with bail conditions, of which there would be many,” she said.
“The vast majority of youth offenders grow out of youth offending, not because someone deters or punishes them.”
Meyer said legislating breach of bail as an offence could unfairly punish innocent and disadvantaged children.
“They will be breaching bail because of vulnerable life circumstances,” Meyer said.
“In the majority of cases, we’re not talking about someone who goes home to a reliable, supportive environment … we’re talking about children that have been repeatedly failed by the system, highly impacted by trauma.”
The youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, and attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, also defended the overriding of the Human Rights Act this week. They said the government did not make the decision lightly and had listened to the community’s concerns.
Linard said “Queenslanders are fearful” and had been calling on the government “to make significant changes.”
“Responding to breach of bail, as the premier said, was about taking a bipartisan approach and it’s about responding to something that the community has called for passionately,” she said.
Fentiman told reporters the state had seen an “incredible escalation of violence, particularly with the weapons that are now being used”.
Queensland’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, also supported the measures, but conceded the new laws would apply pressure to a youth justice system that’s already at capacity.
“That cohort [of repeat youth offenders] has been extraordinarily difficult – it’s about 10 to 20% [of all youth offenders]. We acknowledge that we will be putting pressure on the system,” Carroll said.
Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, on Monday said he was alarmed by the decision to override the Human Rights Act, which would be the first time the government has chosen to remove such protections.
“It is deeply concerning,” McDougall said.
“This is yet another piecemeal reaction to youth crime and with no overarching, coordinated, multi-agency plan to meaningfully address the causes of youth offending.”
