The Queensland government has defied human rights, Indigenous and legal experts to pass a series of punitive laws which, by their own admission, will see more children incarcerated.
Under the Making Queensland Safer Laws, once the legislation comes into effect, juveniles charged with several serious crimes, including murder, manslaughter, and burglary, will face tougher maximum sentences.
The bill also removes "detention as a last resort"—a tenet of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody and several international commitments Australia has ratified.
Children as young as 10 found guilty of murder will face a mandatory life sentence, with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.
"These laws are for every Queenslander who has ever felt unsafe and been a victim of youth crime across our state," Premier David Crisafulli said.
"Queenslanders voted for it, we've delivered it and now Adult Crime, Adult Time will be law before Christmas."
First Nations Justice Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, Maggie Munn, said they wondered "how the Premier can sleep at night knowing he is condemning Queensland children to an unbelievably bleak future, especially when those children are predominantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids, and kids with a disability".
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For the third time in less than two years, the state's human rights act will be overridden, with one lawyer telling National Indigenous Times the act wasn't worth "the paper it's written on".
"It is appalling that the Crisafulli government has overridden the Human Rights Act and blatantly disregarded international law about the treatment of children in the criminal legal system," Munn 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 was produced that the measures would make the community safer.
Furthermore, incarceration skyrocketed despite crime rates consistently declining across the country—contrary to a scare campaign from politicians and some sections of the media.
Greens MP Michael Berkman told Parliament the bill's "incompatibility" with human rights was "quite an extraordinary read".
"It outlines in detail the many and varied ways these laws will limit the rights of Queensland children, and for what?" he said.
On the LNPs slogan 'Adult crime, Adult time,' Mr Berkman was scathing.
"Adult crime, adult time is not a policy, it is a slogan. When you translate a slogan into legislation, or even a policy, it has to have some substance to it," he said.
Queensland locks up more Indigenous children than anywhere else in the country, and experts have said the new laws will only exacerbate this crisis.
Chief executive of Sisters Inside, Debbie Kilroy, said it was a "dark day in Queensland's history," noting she was in "no doubt," a future inquiry would condemn the actions of the government.
"This legislation will target some of the most vulnerable children in our community, predominantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and we will see the resulting harms for generations to come," she said.
"These laws are not about justice; they are about racism, cruelty and control."
Director of 54 reasons, Mena Waller, said the passing of the bill "marks a tragic day for the rights of children in Queensland," and argued legislation aimed at reforming the justice system should be "informed by the voices and lived experiences of children and young people who are in contact with the system".
We know that the solutions to fixing an already broken youth justice system must be anchored in evidence and address the root causes of offending. This bill does neither," she said.
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.
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."
On passing the bill, she said: "Make no mistake, the holiday is over for young offenders and, if you commit an adult crime, you will face adult time."
Last month, Queensland's Human Rights Commissioner, Scott McDougall, said it had been lost on people that children not old enough to go on a theme park ride by themselves could be incarcerated, labelling the legislation a "clear breach of human rights obligations".
