The furore surrounding proposed new youth justice laws introduced into Queensland Parliament continues to reverberate, with the peak body for Indigenous children joining a chorus of organisations arguing the 'grossly unjust' laws will fail to improve community safety.
Last week, legislation introduced into Parliament would see the removal of the principle of detention of children as a last resort - a basic tenet of international conventions Australia has ratified, and of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Furthermore, children will be able to be sentenced to life in prison for five offences, including manslaughter, grievous bodily harm, and burglary.
If found guilty of murder, they must be sentenced to life, with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.
SNAICC—National Voice for our Children chief executive, Catherine Liddle, says the bill in its current form won't make communities in Queensland safer.
She also argued evidence showed "criminalising" and incarcerating children failed to address youth crime rates.
"These laws will do the opposite to what they claim, risking an increase in crime by exposing children to the juvenile justice system at a younger age," Ms Liddle said.
She said whilst everyone wanted to live in safety, this bill "fails to meet that standard".
Premier David Crisafulli did not name any experts who support his government's new laws when asked by reporters on Tuesday, instead pointing to the support from "a lot of Queenslanders", including "frontline workers".
"Just on some of those [making] commentary, in many cases, it's the same people who led to the same situation for the last decade," he said.
Asked if he was saying a number of the state's statutory bodies - including Queensland's Human Rights Commissioner - the Premier again pivoted, arguing: "They have a different view, and they should be able to express that view."
The legislation was tabled with a statement of compatibility with human rights, a requirement under the Human Rights Act, written in the name of the Attorney General, Deb Frecklington.
Ms Frecklington acknowledged the new bill would violate human rights and said the state would suspend the Human Rights Act—the third time in less than two years it had been done.
In a statement accompanying the bill, Minister Frecklington said: "I also recognise that, according to international human rights standards, the negative impact on the rights of children likely outweighs the legitimate aims of punishment and denunciation."
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Queensland locks up more Indigenous children than anywhere else in the country, and experts have said the new laws will only exacerbate this crisis.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are already over-represented in the juvenile justice system in Queensland – this legislation will only make that worse," Ms Liddle said.
When Labor twice suspended the act in the last 18 months of their term - to allow children to be criminalised for breaking bail, and to allow children to be housed in adult watch houses - no evidence came forth that the community was made safer.
Whilst the decisions were met with outrage from Indigenous, legal, and medical experts, they were not rescinded before Labor was defeated in the October election.
Data shows the younger a child is first introduced into the justice system, the more likely they are to reoffend.
The recidivism rate for children aged 10-12 is 86 per cent; for people aged 19-20, it sits at 33 per cent.
"We know that over 90 percent of children who leave detention in Queensland will return to the system within the year," Ms Liddle said.
"What makes the difference is early intervention, diversion and rehabilitation programs that are proven to interrupt the cycle of reoffending."
Speaking last week, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Child Protection Peak chief executive, Garth Morgan, said both major parties were in a "race to the bottom," arguing a focus on 'tough on crime' and populist policies did nothing to help people in need.
"The reason why we're talking about tough on crime now isn't because we haven't been tough enough on crime in the past, it's because we haven't been tough enough on poverty," Mr Morgan said.
Ms Liddle said SNAICC had submitted to the Queensland Government that the bill should not be passed in its current form, but rather amended to both protect the rights of children and target the drivers of offending.
"The Queensland Government has talked about these interventions but while they rush to lock children up, they are not putting in place the support and diversion programs," she said.
"The Queensland Government wants to treat children as responsible adults when it comes to crime, but not when it comes to enjoying basic human rights."
