The Queensland premier has defended the government’s decision to fast-track proposed law changes around police watch houses, saying it is “standard practice” and their job is “to keep the public safe”.
Police Minister Mark Ryan yesterday moved dozens of pages of amendments to a bill on child protection offender reporting, including allowing police watch houses and adult prisons to be used as youth detention centres.
It would override the state’s Human Rights Act for the second time this year.
Both the Greens and the opposition have criticised the government for tacking on “significant” amendments to “unrelated” legislation and circumventing the parliamentary committee process.
Appearing on ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended the move, saying the amendments about watch houses “is not something new” and “formalises a practice that has been in place for 30 years”.
“You know we put in place tough laws and this is where they go before they face court appearances or before they’re transferred to a youth detention facility and that is what the public want, the public want community safety,” she said.
Pressed about the criticism, Ms Palaszczuk said the government appreciated “there are a lot of views out there,” but added her job was to balance the “activities of these young criminals across our state with the protection of the community”.
“The public have been pretty loud and clear that they want the community protected and this is just one means in which young people have been placed into watch houses,” she said.
“And let me say this is not our desired outcome, we would much prefer to have them all in youth detention facilities and this regulation, my understanding, will actually lapse once the new detention facilities are built.”
She said it was “not uncommon” for amendments to go through parliament during the debate stage, calling it “standard practice”.
‘Taken by surprise’: Human Rights Commissioner
Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall told ABC Radio Brisbane it wasn’t the case that the laws would just “formalise what’s been happening for 30 years” by holding children in watch houses.
“It’s not the case that we’ve been detaining children in watch houses for up to weeks on end,” he said.
“It’s only been happening really since 2018, and it’s becoming increasingly worse.
“I was taken by surprise at these laws being rushed through last night.
“There’s two issues, there’s the process for rushing laws and then there’s the impact of the laws themselves not just on the children but also on victims. And also on Queensland’s reputation as a modern democracy that actually values human rights and due process.”
Mr McDougall said the proposed laws changes would effectively remove the question from the courts about whether it was legal to hold children in police watch houses.
Queensland Family and Child Commissioners Natalie Lewis and Luke Tywford released a joint statement saying they were “deeply concerned” the proposed law changes would deny children in the youth justice system basic human rights.
“Changing the name of a watch house does not make it any more suitable to house a child,” they said.
“In a watch house, a child can be exposed to violent and anti-social adult behaviour that can be harmful and compound their trauma, and they don’t receive the intensive, rehabilitative support they need to address the causes of their offending.
“We need to be smart against crime, not tough. With each step taken towards more punitive responses, we move further away from the possibility of a just outcome for victims and children.”