New laws in Queensland which will see children as young as ten treated as adults have been labelled "gobsmacking" by human rights groups.

The proposed legislation will remove 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.

First Nations Justice Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, Maggie Munn, said the new laws were "beyond shameful," arguing children belonged in schoolyards, not prisons.

The legislation was the first one introduced by the new Crisafulli government after campaigning on a platform of "adult time, adult crime".

Munn said it will inevitably and disproportionately impact First Nations children, who will be "ripped away from families".

"Decades of evidence from First Nations communities, health experts, human rights advocates and legal organisations have shown a better way is possible for children and our communities than throwing children as young as ten in a police or prison cell," they said.

Under the new legislation, children can 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.

With Queensland having only one house of Parliament, and the LNP holding a majority after their election victory last month, the laws are all but certain to pass.

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".

It will be the third time in less than two years the state will override the Human Rights Act—all three occasions related to youth justice.

Despite little evidence supporting the statement, Premier Crisafulli said the legislation would "serve as a deterrence to crime," arguing it would "reduce the number of victims".

A series of punitive laws under the last Labor government saw incarceration rates explode.

45 per cent of all Indigenous children incarcerated on any given day in 2022-23 across the country were in Queensland.

"There is no justification for overriding the Act – again – and no justification for the rushed inquiry process and lack of proper scrutiny and consideration," Commissioner McDougall said.

A statement of compatibility tabled with the bill - required under the act - stated: "The amendments will lead to sentences for children that are more punitive than necessary to achieve community safety. This is in direct conflict with international law standards."

"Those aren't my words," Commissioner McDougall said.

"They are the words of the government responsible for tabling this legislation."

He added: "Any society that treats children in the same way as adults is a society which has lost its way. We are all diminished by these laws."

Munn argued if the new government "actually cared about children and community safety," then it would invest in policies and programs designed to divert children and young people from the criminal justice system.

The Gunggari human rights campaigner added: "More than thirty years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, countless inquiries and reports later, it's shameful that governments not only fail to listen to the evidence but go against it."

Greens MP Michael Berkman slammed the new legislation, which comes on the back of the new LNP government cancelling the truth-telling inquiry on Thursday.

"In just one day, the LNP has committed to locking up more First Nations kids, setting them up for reoffending and failure, and then refusing to listen to Elders or address the wrongs done to generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," he said.

Munn agreed, stating: "It is not lost on our communities that at the same time the Crisafulli Government has stripped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland of the Truth Telling Inquiry and an opportunity to address injustice, they are doubling down on laws that will see punish our children and see history repeat itself."

Change the Record's National Director, Blake Cansdale, called the legislation a "tragic misstep," which would do nothing to reduce offending.

"The Queensland Government should be investing in First Nations-led and community-based prevention and early intervention services and rehabilitative programs," he said.

"This approach would not only reduce reoffending, but it would also grow our children and our communities stronger."