The government of Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland has shocked human rights experts by suspending its Human Rights Act for the second time this year, enabling the detention of more children.
The ruling Labor Party recently passed legislation allowing the indefinite detention of under-18s, including children as young as 10, in police watchhouses. This drastic measure was taken because changes to youth justice laws, such as imprisonment for young people violating bail conditions, led to insufficient space in designated youth detention centers.
These developments have surprised Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall, who expressed concern about the fragile nature of human rights protections in Australia, where there is no nationwide Human Rights Act.
The Queensland Human Rights Act, established in 2019, prohibited the detention of children in adult prisons. However, it had to be suspended for the government to implement its new legislation.
Earlier this year, the Productivity Commission reported that Queensland had the highest number of detained children among all Australian states. The “Sunshine State” had an average of 287 youths in detention daily in 2021-2022, compared to 190 in New South Wales, the second-highest state. Despite the high cost of detaining each child, more than half of Queensland’s incarcerated children are re-sentenced for new offenses within a year of release.
A report by the Justice Reform Initiative in November 2022 further revealed a 27% increase in Queensland’s youth detention numbers over seven years.