The Queensland Government’s integration of bail laws into its signature “Adult Crime, Adult Time” legislation has been dismissed by experts as both sloganeering and unnecessary.
However, increasingly tougher sentences and treatment for children and teenagers found guilty of serious crimes have become a cornerstone of the Government’s tough-on-crime measures.
Premier David Crisafulli, who was elected in 2024 after campaigning on the laws, has increased the number of offences eligible for adult punishment since coming to office.
Crisafulli used his keynote address on Sunday at the LNP state convention to pledge a new offence for under-agers who breach bail.
“We need to continue to have consequences for actions to make sure that we continue to restore safety,” he told delegates.
“If you’re a repeat offender, you’re wielding a machete, you’re stealing cars, you’re breaking into people’s homes ... if you breach bail, you will go to jail.”
This marks a major escalation in the state’s crime crackdown, according to a Nine News TV report on Sunday, which claimed the premier is effectively saying ‘no more second chances’.
“What isn’t quite clear, though, is exactly what bail breaches will be classified underneath this, and also how long youth offenders will be going to jail,” a Nine reporter said.
“The Labor opposition has also pointed out that detention centres are already struggling to cope with numbers.”
The Government said it will consult with the public and that the legislation will be in by the end of the year.
The new reform means a Queenslander as young as 10 who commits a serious offence while on bail will be subject to a mandatory jail term.
Griffith University associate professor of criminology Dr Nadine Connell said it was not possible to be a “repeat offender” while on bail as that meant the offence had not yet been tried.
“Being charged with an offence does not make you guilty,” she said.
Connell said Queensland already had some of Australia’s strictest bail laws, and it was “incredibly rare” to see bail offered for people facing serious charges.
“We’re putting on some political theatre as if this is what young people are doing,” she said.
“We actually live in an incredibly safe country, and one in which youth crime continues to decline.”
Labor also attacked the proposal, arguing the youth justice system did not have the capacity to accommodate additional cases.
Detention centre workers staged a strike in June to protest conditions at youth detention facilities in Brisbane.
Connell said the likelihood of additional measures promised by Crisafulli meant those extra beds would soon be used.
“The more time young people spend under criminal justice supervision, the more negative their life outcomes are going to be,” she said.
“These are children that the Federal Government doesn’t think should have an Instagram account, but we are going to hold them to a level of responsibility ... the same as fully-formed adults.
‘Young people do stupid things and they ‘age out’, so we want to be very careful about how we manage that age-out process, so they can become wonderful members of society.”
(with AAP)
