Queensland concedes law imposing mandatory jail on some offenders as young as 10 breaches human rights
Queensland Concedes Law Imposing Mandatory Jail Breaches Rights
Wanderstayfinder.com – Queensland concedes law imposing mandatory jail sentences on offenders as young as ten is incompatible with human rights, according to explanatory documents tabled alongside the bill this week. The state government formally acknowledged that the legislation overrides the Queensland Human Rights Act — a step the Act reserves for genuinely exceptional circumstances such as a declared state of emergency. The admission means the measure, which locks repeat offenders into a compulsory twelve-month prison term with no parole eligibility, will operate outside the normal protections afforded to liberty, fair trial, and children’s rights.
What the Bill Requires and Who It Targets
Colloquially dubbed “breach bail, go to jail,” the measure applies to anyone charged with a government-designated “significant offence” while already on bail, or anyone who fails to appear for a scheduled court matter. For children, the trigger list covers forty-seven offences previously legislated for adults, including dangerous operation of a vehicle, robbery, and entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence. Adults face the same list plus two additional categories: sexual offences against children and coercive control.
Under the bill, a person accused of a significant offence while on bail faces a dramatically elevated threshold for being granted bail again. A court or police officer must be satisfied to a “high degree of confidence” that the individual will not commit another significant offence before releasing them. Failing that test, the person is remanded in custody. If convicted of the second offence, the individual receives a mandatory minimum sentence of twelve months behind bars, with no parole eligibility. The term may run concurrently with any sentence imposed for the additional offence. Crucially, the mandatory penalty applies even where the person is ultimately found not guilty of the first offence that triggered the bail breach.
Government Justification and Expert Pushback
In the accompanying documents, the government concedes the legislation limits multiple rights protected under the Queensland Human Rights Act, including the right to liberty, the principle that persons awaiting trial should not be automatically detained, and the right of children to protection in their best interests. It further acknowledges that the additional incarcerations will worsen overcrowding in the state’s corrective services facilities and youth detention centre, thereby “impacting the conditions of detention, engaging the right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty.”
Attorney General Deb Frecklington justified the override by pointing to “the prevalence of serious repeat offending committed while on bail” as the exceptional circumstance warranting departure from the Act’s protections. Premier David Crisafulli framed the legislation as delivering “the strongest bail laws in the country” and acknowledged the state planned to build additional jails to absorb the expected rise in custodial numbers.
Bridget Burton, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland and human rights lawyer, argued that no apparent exceptional circumstances exist to justify the override. She warned that stripping judicial discretion from sentencing produces unreasonable outcomes.
“Mandatory sentencing prevents judges from considering the circumstances of an offence. When circumstances become irrelevant, we can see cruel outcomes for individuals contrary to what the community would expect, particularly when someone who is a victim also commits an offence.”
William Wood, senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at Griffith University, questioned the deterrent logic of the measure. He noted that little evidence supports the claim that a fixed twelve-month term functions as a meaningful deterrent for young people. Wood also pointed out that courts already weigh prior offending when deciding whether to grant bail, meaning the bill effectively removes a discretion the system already exercises.
“Increasing incarceration is not in itself an evidence-based youth crime strategy. Once the highest-risk young people are already being detained, expanding detention increasingly captures less serious offenders, with diminishing public-safety returns and growing financial and social costs.”
Wood added that the bill would likely affect only the least serious offenders in practice, because a person convicted of a genuinely violent offence would already receive a sentence exceeding the twelve-month floor. He highlighted that Queensland already records the highest youth detention rate of any Australian state and makes “exceptionally heavy use of pre-trial detention,” making further expansion of custody particularly costly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the mandatory sentence apply if the first offence ends in acquittal? Yes. The bill imposes the twelve-month minimum even where the person is ultimately found not guilty of the original offence that triggered the bail breach.
Can a judge reduce the sentence below twelve months? No. The sentence is mandatory and carries no parole eligibility, removing judicial discretion at sentencing for the second offence.
How does this interact with the Queensland Human Rights Act? The government has formally conceded the legislation limits several rights under the Act and has invoked the override mechanism, which the Act permits only in exceptional circumstances such as a declared state of emergency.
Which offences trigger the mandatory term for children? Forty-seven offences previously legislated for adults, including dangerous operation of a vehicle, robbery, and entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence. Adults additionally face sexual offences against children and coercive control.
Will the state build new prisons to accommodate the expected increase in custodial numbers? Premier Crisafulli acknowledged the state planned to build additional jails, though experts note Queensland already has the highest youth detention rate of any Australian state.
