Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Bill 2025 (Qld)
6 May 2025
The ALA sent correspondence to Queensland Parliament’s Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee (‘Committee’) regarding the Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Bill 2025 (Qld) (‘Bill’).
The Bill is the second tranche of the Queensland Government’s ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ laws, adding 20 more offences to the ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ sentencing scheme within Queensland’s youth justice system.
In our correspondence, the ALA expressed our ongoing concerns that:
- youth detention in Queensland does not result in the rehabilitation of children or their safe reintegration into the community – instead, investments in housing, education, health services and community-led, trauma-informed programs will assist in supporting vulnerable children and their families across Queensland;
- the changes ushered in by this Bill will have a disproportionate and negative effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Queensland; and
- the Bill breaches Queensland’s Human Rights Act 2019, as well as Queensland’s obligations under international human rights law.
The ALA also endorsed the law and policy recommendations made by ANTaR Queensland and Sisters Inside Inc in their submissions in the course of their opposition to the provisions of this Bill.
The final report from the Committee was tabled in May 2025. The Committee recommended that this Bill be passed. While the Committee found that “the Bill is not compatible with human rights as defined in the Human Rights Act 2019”, the Committee determined that “this incompatibility is justified in the circumstances”.
Correspondence
Final Report