The passing of legislation that will see children as young as ten spend their life in prison for some crimes will only make communities less safe, the peak body for Indigenous community-controlled legal organisations says.
It comes as Making Queensland Safer Laws passed Queensland parliament last week - with the full support of every opposition Labor MP.
The legislation, which will see juveniles charged with several serious crimes, including murder, manslaughter, and burglary, face tougher maximum sentences, has also seen the government suspend the state's Human Rights Act for the third time.
Furthermore, laws also overturn the fundamental principle - outlined in 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - that the incarceration of children should be a last resort.
On Monday, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) said the LNP's 'adult crime, adult time' legislation would backfire and make communities more dangerous.
"We know that locking children up only increases crime," NATSILS chair, Karly Warner, said.
"We know that longer sentences do nothing to deter future offending. And we know these laws will fail Queensland communities – especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children."
Queensland locks up more Indigenous children and young people than any other jurisdiction in the country, with the rates having increased dramatically in recent years.
National Indigenous Times previously reported on children pleading guilty to crimes they didn't commit in order to avoid spending time in detention, whilst in March, a report highlighted the story of two disabled Indigenous children, who died in the aftermath of being kept in "separation" - the term the Queensland government uses for solitary confinement - for extensive periods of time whilst incarcerated in youth facilities.
Acting chief executive for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) Queensland, Greg Shadbolt, said research was clear incarcerating children will be "counter-productive to the goal of safer communities".
"The government should be leading public opinion rather than following it – and being 'smart on crime': addressing the upstream drivers of offending behaviour such as housing, education, employment, and health," he said.
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Passing of legislation by the previous Labor government to criminalise breaches of bail for children saw incarceration skyrocket, and led to the government having to suspend the Human Rights Act to allow children as young as ten to be housed in adult watch houses with violent offenders.
Human rights organisations have long called for the government to immediately cease housing children in the watch houses, arguing it amounted to "state-based torture".
Revelations about the facilities in Queensland include a 13-year old Indigenous girl - assessed as having the mental capacity of a kindergarten child - being handcuffed, naked, and covered in her own urine, and a 17-year-old First Nations boy being struck with a baton by police.
Ms Warner said communities deserved laws based on evidence proven to work, not empty slogans, arguing if jailing was successful, "Queensland would already be the safest place in Australia".
"Youth crime has decreased over the past two decades in Queensland, but these laws will create more crime, more violence and more victims," she said.
A campaign focussing on law and order - especially youth crime - dominated the 18 months in the lead up to the election, with a number of organisations confiding in National Indigenous Times said they were concerned about how First Nations children would be treated under an LNP government.
The Making Queensland Safer Laws were 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.
The Minister 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."
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".
