The QLD LNP’s ‘adult crime, adult time’ policy has been heavily criticised by human rights advocates. Photo: David Crisafulli Facebook.
Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has announced a controversial policy to sentence young offenders to the same amount of prison time as adults if the crime is serious enough.
Mr Crisafulli was launching his ‘Making Our Community Safer’ plan as part of the LNP’s campaign for the Queensland elections scheduled for 26 October.
He said the policy would apply for offences such as murder, manslaughter, serious assault, grievous bodily harm and the dangerous operation and unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and that it would help end the “generation of the repeat untouchables”.
“If you murder someone, that’s an adult crime. If you wound someone, ‘adult crime, adult time’,” he said during the policy launch to an LNP audience in Brisbane on Sunday (7 July).
“If you violate the sanctity of someone’s home, you break in and rob them, well … adult crime.”
“There will be some who say these laws are too harsh,” he added.
“To them, I say, just as a lack of consequences cause an increase in reciprocal offending, tough consequences will drive that down.”
Queensland law requires adults convicted of murder to serve a life sentence and, under the LNP’s proposed law, that would also apply to young offenders under the age of 18.
Premier Steven Miles accused the LNP of exploiting youth crime with four-word slogans for votes.
“What I care about is keeping the community safe, and I know the best way to keep the community safe is with an evidence-based, expert-informed, comprehensive plan for community safety,” he said.
“The LNP have been extraordinarily honest about the fact that they see crime and sensationalising crime as their way to win seats.”
Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall told the ABC that political parties needed to be careful about “auctioning off the fundamental rights of children during the 2024 election campaign”.
“Queensland is already the subject of international attention because of the conditions in which we have been detaining children, including grotesque practices such as prolonged solitary confinement and weeks-long detention in adult watchhouses,” he said.
“The proposal to treat children as young as 10 years old – the majority of which are First Nations – in the same way as we would sentence an adult, flies in the face of all evidence about how to successfully combat crime and puts our international reputation as a modern democracy at stake.”
Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O’Gorman likened the policy to when the former Newman LNP government introduced legislation without consultation to crack down on outlaw motorcycle gangs in 2013.
“It was a Newman government law and order gimmick where that government’s rhetoric could not successfully be put into practice,” Mr O’Gorman told The Guardian, adding that Mr Crisafulli’s comments demonstrated that necessary policy work to support the proposal had not been completed.
“Law and order slogans are one thing. Doing the hard work to fix Queensland’s juvenile justice system is quite another,” Mr O’Gorman said.
A more welcome part of the LNP’s policy was a $175 million plan to ensure that young offenders leaving detention would be given a 12-month post-release plan to assist them in reintegrating into society.
“We can’t just release a young offender into society and just allow them to carry on where they left off,” Mr Crisafulli said.
