Legal figures reject LNP’s latest proposal on Queensland youth crime

Because of the developmental differences between children and adults, a trade-off is made between what is recorded in a criminal record and for how long, and the risk that it will harm rehabilitation.

What they said

Fogerty was among the people and groups who spoke out Tuesday about the proposed changes.

“This is not a law that is going to make the community safer,” she said. “There have been decades and decades of research … (about) what needs to be done to address youth crime, and that is addressing the root causes … at the community, family, educational, social, health care levels.”

Damien O’Brien KC, president of the Queensland Bar Association, noted that the group, which represents lawyers, typically only comments on legislation that is before parliament.

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“The association has consistently taken the position that any change in the law regarding juvenile justice must be based on evidence,” he said in a statement.

Criminal lawyer Bill Potts accused the LNP of “trying to get into parliament through punitive measures”.

Katherine Hayes, director of the Youth Advocacy Centre, said the changes would result in more children ending up in the state’s overburdened detention system.

Perspectives

An LNP press release presented the initiative as a “rollback” of Labor’s 2016 rollback of previous Newman-era changes.

“The slate should not be wiped clean when an offender turns 18,” Crisafulli said.

Premier Steven Miles would not say whether he was for or against the proposal, saying only that it was more about winning votes than about community safety. Otherwise, the proposal would have been tabled earlier.

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