Australia's Children's Commissioner has called on the federal government to affirm its commitment to the human rights of Australia's children as the Queensland government this week looks set to pass the controversial Making Queensland Safer Bill.
The new legislation, which has been condemned by Indigenous, legal, and human rights advocates as offering no community safety improvements whilst simultaneously incarcerating more vulnerable children, will not face opposition from Labor, who has put forward amendments but will vote for the bill.
The legislation was the first introduced by the new Crisafulli government after campaigning on a platform of "adult time, adult crime", and will allow children 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.
The legislation 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.
45 per cent of all Indigenous children incarcerated on any given day in 2022-23 across the country were in Queensland.
On Wednesday, National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds called on the Commonwealth to affirm the human rights of Australian children in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
She argued the Making Queensland Safer Bill was an "international embarrassment" for the federal government after the United Nations had criticised its "flagrant disregard" for the human rights of children and international law.
Commissioner Hollonds said the legislation "signals to the world Australia's failure to uphold the basic human rights of children in the most vulnerable of circumstances".
"The Bill creates new laws which could result in children as young as 10 years of age being sentenced as adults, including mandatory life sentences," she said.
"Detention as a last resort would also be removed as a key principle guiding the sentencing of child offenders. These and other measures in the Bill contravene Australia's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."
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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," SNAICC chief executive, Catherine Liddle, said last week.
Commissioner Hollonds argued most of the children in detention have disabilities, learning problems, mental health issues and trauma.
"Many live in poverty and lack the most basic of human requirements, such as secure housing and food, schooling that meets their needs, and support for drug addiction and violence," she said.
"Too many are First Nations children."
Earlier this year, a report by the state's Child Death Review Board revealed the death of two disabled Indigenous children, who died after being kept in "separation" - the term the Queensland government uses for solitary confinement - for extensive periods of time whilst incarcerated in youth facilities.
"This Bill will harm children and will not make Queensland safer," Commissioner Hollonds said.
"The Queensland Government is ignoring evidence which shows that the younger a child comes into contact with the justice system, the more likely it is that they will continue to commit more serious crimes."
During debate of the bill on Tuesday night, Attorney General Deb Frecklington said Labor were delaying the bill and "laughing about victims" who wanted to be "safe in their homes over Christmas".
"All they want to do with this amendment is say to the people of Queensland, 'Be afraid of Christmas. Be afraid on Boxing Day,'" Ms Frecklington said.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said Indigenous children were 23 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be locked up in Queensland.
"This is what the LNP's racist agenda looks like in action," he said.
"The LNP talks about community safety, but it does not see First Nations children as part of our community. It does not care about their safety. It does not care about their wellbeing, their great potential and their hope for a better life."
Commissioner Hollonds called on the Prime Minister to do more, noting the wellbeing of Australia's children was not a priority for National Cabinet.
"The lack of accountability for child wellbeing over many decades represents the failures of successive governments, and we continue to pay the cost," she said.
"At this critical time, all governments across our federation need to stand up for the human rights of Australia's children, including the Australian Government."
