Queensland Labor leader Steven Miles says he doesn't expect Labor to oppose new Premier David Crisafulli's 'adult crime, adult time' laws.
It comes as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said on Monday the new reforms proposed by the Liberal-National Party (LNP) will have a "significant disproportionate impact on First Nations children and young people".
After losing the state election on the weekend, the outgoing Queensland premier told ABC Radio Brisbane he didn't expect his party to oppose the LNP policy for which they "clearly have a mandate".
Mr Miles argued his government was too slow to respond to a perceived crime crisis in the north of the state, in areas such as Townsville in 2021 and 2022.
"We got things wrong in Townsville and people made up their minds to tell us that," he said.
"We've got four years to tell Townsville locals that we've got the message."
The LNP has promised a series of new laws, including an "adult crime, adult time" policy and "mandatory isolation periods" for children who assault workers in youth detention.
"The generation of repeat untouchables must end," Mr Crisafulli said earlier this year.
He also vowed to end the Truth-Telling commission, which was set up with bi-partisan support in 2023.
Writing on social media, Commissioner Kiss said like the new government in the NT, the LNP would bring "big changes" in both policy development and delivery, especially for First Nations peoples.
"Proposed Youth Justice reforms will have a significant disproportionate impact on First Nations children and young people - who are punished for the poverty and disadvantage they experience - something that is completely out of their control," Commissioner Kiss said.
"And the incoming government have vowed to repeal truth and treaty legislation - which they unanimously endorsed when it passed through the Parliament in May 2023."
She also noted the new LNP government would not have any Indigenous representation, which she argued "will put extra pressure on our First Nations Members of Parliament".
Despite claims to the contrary from both major parties and a consistent media campaign, youth crime rates have plummeted in Queensland.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that Queensland's youth crime rate had halved across the past 14 years. In 2022, Queensland's youth crime hit the lowest rates in recorded history, remaining steady since then.
Mr Crisafulli has routinely highlighted raw numbers to highlight an increase of crime, rather than per capita numbers. On the election trail he promised to resign if crime went up, only to argue later he meant in per capita terms.
Queensland locks up more Indigenous children than anywhere else in the country, with Labor twice suspending the Human Rights Act to enable further incarceration.
On an average day in 2022-23 in Queensland, 310 children were in detention — 70 per cent of them Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. A recent report found all three of the state's youth detention centres in 2022-23 were operating over their safe capacity by an average of 23 young offenders each day.
