Introduction by Croakey: New Queensland Premier David Crisafulli introduced the Making Queensland Safer Bill to Parliament today, which aims to usher in a series of ‘tough on crime’ promises, including ‘adult crime, adult time’ imposed on young people and the removal of the principle of detention as a last resort.
In the article below exploring the ramifications and failures of such policies elsewhere in Australia and internationally, Debbie Kilroy and Tabitha Lean say the legislation is “a dangerous mix of fear-mongering, political opportunism, and outdated punitive ideology”.
Change the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre have also denounced the proposed laws as “gob-smacking” and “shameful”. They said the dangers of prison for children disproportionately affect First Nations children, especially 10-13 year olds, who are “grossly overrepresented in custody”.
“Just one year ago, the Queensland Child Death Review Board reported on the deaths of two Aboriginal boys in custody whose tragic deaths were preventable,” they said. Read their full statement here.
Queensland’s Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall has also slammed the proposed laws, saying in a statement that they “will not make the community safer and are a clear breach of human rights obligations”.
“What seems to have been lost is the fact we are talking about children – some as young as 10-years-old. We’re talking about children in grade 4, who aren’t old enough to go on a ride at a theme park by themselves, and we are talking about treating them and giving them the same moral culpability we give to adults,” he said.
The introduction of the legislation comes amid breaking news that the Queensland Government has moved to repeal the state’s Path to Treaty, without consultation on timing and process with those involved in the historic undertaking, including the Queensland Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry, whose work has only just got underway.
Inquiry chair Joshua Creamer told media the Government “snuck” the repeal of the historic treaty process onto the back of amendments to Brisbane Olympics legislation, and moved a motion to sit till midnight tonight so it can be passed, “which is an extraordinary use of power”.
The haste, lack of consultation, and prioritisation of the repeal – which will be the first piece of legislation passed by the new Government – is sending the message “that they do not want the truth to be told of our history”, Creamer said, adding that it would set back the relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland “for a very long time”.
Watch Creamer’s media conference about the repeal here. Croakey will report more on the decision next week.
Debbie Kilroy and Tabitha Lean write:
The new Queensland Liberal National Party Government’s rushed push to pass its signature ‘adult crime, adult time’ legislation is more than just a step backward – it is a calculated, racially motivated attack on Aboriginal children and other vulnerable young people.
Framed as a response to a so-called youth crime crisis, the policy is a dangerous mix of fear-mongering, political opportunism, and outdated punitive ideology.
The truth is, there is no youth crime crisis. Criminologists and justice advocates have repeatedly debunked this narrative, showing that youth crime rates have been stable or declining over time. University of Queensland criminologist Renee Zahnow is quoted as saying, “there’s no data to suggest that the rates of youth crime are spiralling out of control in Queensland or indeed anywhere in Australia”.
However, what we are witnessing is a politically manufactured crisis, created to justify draconian measures that will sweep more children – disproportionately Aboriginal children – into Queensland’s children’s prisons.
Rushed, reckless and racist
This legislation has been rushed into Parliament with alarming speed, leaving advocates and frontline services, such as Sisters Inside, who have been working in this space for over three decades now, little time to scrutinise its content or assess its likely impact.
This lack of transparency is both reckless and telling: the Government knows that meaningful critique would reveal the policy for what it is – a failed and harmful approach that will devastate families and communities.
To compound this recklessness, the LNP Government did not even have its own modelling for children’s prison bed capacity until this week. Despite months of promises to introduce these laws, it failed to plan for the inevitable surge in incarceration rates.
Prisons across the state are already overstretched, and this policy will create a prison bed crisis, opening the door for yet another disastrous diversion of public funds from essential community services into expanding prisons and policing.
This will provide the convenient excuse for the Government to invest more money in building more prisons, and more prisons mean more bodies in cages.
A dangerous relic of failed policies
The ‘adult crime, adult time’ mantra is not new. Variations of this approach have been trialled in other jurisdictions, both in Australia and internationally, and have consistently failed to reduce criminalisation or enhance public safety.
Instead, they have fuelled mass incarceration crises, deepened social inequalities, and further marginalised already vulnerable communities.
The ‘adult crime, adult time’ approach in Queensland will undoubtedly fail to achieve its intended goals, of reducing crime or increasing public safety.
Instead, it will perpetuate harm, exacerbate systemic inequalities, and prove costly for the government and our community. We know from other countries that harsher sentences and adult-style punishments for children do nothing to address the root causes of social harm. What they do achieve, however, is the perpetuation of cycles of poverty, trauma, and systemic racism.
Queensland is following the same failed path as the following countries and jurisdictions, as detailed below.
United States: ‘superpredator’ era and juvenile transfer laws
In the 1990s, the US adopted the ‘adult crime, adult time’ philosophy during the so-called ‘superpredator’ panic. Many states passed laws making it easier to try children as adults for certain offences.
Outcomes:
- Studies consistently showed that transferring children to adult courts increased their likelihood of recriminalisation compared to those kept in children’s prison.
- Children incarcerated in adult prisons were at higher risk of physical and sexual assault, suicide, and severe trauma.
- The policies disproportionately targeted Black children, deepening racial disparities in the justice system.
Western Australia: ‘three strikes’ laws for children
Western Australia implemented mandatory sentencing laws in the 1990s, including the ‘three strikes’ rule for property offences, which resulted in children being imprisoned after three minor offences.
Outcomes:
- Aboriginal children were disproportionately affected, making up the majority of those sentenced under these laws.
- The policies were heavily criticised for criminalising poverty and minor infractions, often sweeping up children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Evidence showed these laws failed to reduce property crime rates or deter offending.
Queensland: prior youth justice crackdowns
Previous Queensland governments have introduced punitive youth justice measures, such as boot camps and mandatory detention for “repeat offenders”.
Outcomes:
- Boot camps were discontinued after evaluations found they were costly and ineffective at reducing recriminalisation.
- Mandatory detention policies failed to address the root causes of “offending”, such as family breakdown, homelessness, and lack of support services.
United Kingdom: child imprisonment following riots
After the 2011 London riots, courts imposed harsh sentences on young people, often transferring them to adult-like punitive settings.
Outcomes:
- Critics argued that these measures did little to address underlying social issues like poverty and disenfranchisement.
- The harsh sentences had long-term negative impacts on the lives of affected children, pushing them further into cycles of disadvantage.
New Zealand: ‘tough on crime’ policies in the 1990s
New Zealand expanded the number of offences for which children could be tried as adults during the 1990s ‘tough on crime’ era.
Outcomes:
- Evaluations showed no significant reduction in youth crime, with concerns raised about the detrimental impacts on Māori children, who were disproportionately affected.
A manufactured crisis to mask real ones
While the Government grandstands on youth crime, Queensland faces real crises that demand urgent attention:
- Chronic underfunding of public housing: thousands of families remain on waiting lists, while more children face homelessness and instability.
- A cost-of-living crisis: rising prices for essentials are pushing families into poverty and despair.
- A failure to invest in services that prevent harm: youth programs, mental health care, and education opportunities remain critically underfunded.
These are the crises driving social harm – not an imaginary wave of children causing harm in our communities. Addressing the real issues requires meaningful investment, not politically expedient punishment.
Racial targeting of Aboriginal children
Make no mistake, this legislation will disproportionately target Aboriginal children.
The Government’s own data already shows the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in Queensland’s youth justice system.
Alongside the Northern Territory, in 2023 Queensland had the highest rates of Aboriginal children aged 10-17 in prison. These laws will deepen this injustice, sweeping more of our children into prison and setting them up for lives marked by incarceration, discrimination, and systemic disadvantage.
This is not an accidental consequence – it is by deliberate design. For a Government to prioritise the criminalisation of children over their care and wellbeing is unconscionable.
A better way forward
Queensland must reject the myth that locking children up makes communities safer. Evidence-based solutions, rooted in care and support, have consistently proven to be more effective in reducing harm and promoting safety. These include:
- Investing in public housing and social services to address the root causes of poverty and instability.
- Funding youth programs and education initiatives that give children the support they need to thrive.
- Empowering community-led solutions that work to heal, not harm, our children and young people.
The LNP’s ‘adult crime, adult time’ policy does none of these things. It is punitive, ineffective, and deeply harmful.
Queensland deserves a government that prioritises care over punishment, prevention over incarceration, and truth over fear-mongering. Most importantly, our children deserve a future where they are supported, not criminalised; nurtured, not locked away.
This legislation is a shameful step in the wrong direction, and we must resist any further measures that attack our children with everything we have. The lives and futures of our children depend on it.
Tabitha Lean is an activist, poet and storyteller. An abolition activist determined to disrupt the colonial project and abolish the prison industrial complex, she’s filled with rage, channelling every bit of that anger towards challenging the colonial carceral state. Having spent almost two years in Adelaide Women’s Prison, 18 months on Home Detention and three years on parole, Tabitha uses her lived prison experience to argue that the criminal punishment system is a brutal and too often deadly colonial frontier for her people. She believes that until we abolish the system and redefine community, health, safety and justice; her people will not be safe.
Debbie Kilroy OAM was first criminalised at the age of 13 and spent over two decades in and out of women’s and children’s prisons. Driven to end the criminalisation and imprisonment of girls and women, Debbie established Sisters Inside, as well as her law firm, Kilroy & Callaghan Lawyers. An unapologetic abolitionist, Debbie’s activism work centres on dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex and all forms of carceral control and exile. With a firm belief that there should be ‘nothing about us without us’, Debbie established the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls to centre the voices, experiences and aspirations of criminalisation and imprisonment women and girls in order to change the face of justice in this country.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on justice and policing
