The Queensland government is expanding the number of offences subject to controversial “adult crime, adult time” laws – but new data shows no children have been charged with two of those crimes in more than a decade.
The statistics were released to a Queensland parliamentary committee considering the Liberal National Party government’s third round of “adult crime, adult time” legislation in March.
The laws already allow children to be sentenced to life behind bars for some non-violent offences, with a life sentence mandatory for convictions of murder.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailUnder the new bill, an additional 12 offences will be added to the 33 included in two previous rounds.
They include aiding suicide and stupefying – drugging – to commit indictable offence. No person under 18 has been charged with either offence since 2015, according to statistics presented to the committee by the department of youth justice and victim support.
Only nine young people have been charged with four other proposed adult crime offences since 2015: disabling to commit indictable offence, conspiring to murder, administer poison with intent and abuse of persons with an impairment of the mind. Just 21 had been charged with rioting.
The state government has long conceded its laws go against human rights, including the right to protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and are discriminatory against children.
They require an override of the state’s Human Rights Act, which is justified on the basis that “the current situation with respect to youth crime in Queensland presents an exceptional crisis situation”.
The government has also argued the legislation is necessary to address a “youth crime crisis”.
The most common offence was a form of assault occasioning bodily harm, committed while armed or in company, or where the offence is published on social media. There were 3,022 charges laid from 2015 to 2025.
Youth Advocacy Centre CEO, Katherine Hayes, said the claim that crimes which had not been committed by young people constituted a crisis “makes no sense” and was “simply untrue”.
The specific offences were chosen by a secret panel appointed by the government. The government promised to release its advice during the committee process, but instead published a document labelled its “final report”, which did not include the guidance.
Hayes provided the committee statistics that showed many of the offences were being committed dozens of times more often by adults than children, and at increasing rates.
For instance, there had been more than 300 sentenced cases of stalking, intimidation, harassment or abuse by adults, but only a handful by children.
She said the data showed that adult time did not deter adults, let alone children.
“We really need an explanation from the government or the advice from the expert panel to understand why these offences, which are not committed by kids, have been included,” she said.’
“It’s nonsensical and without any basis, and I’m struggling to understand it”.
The previous tranche of adult crime legislation included six offences that had not been committed in the period covered, according to data published last year.
Youth offenders committed 12% of all offences in Queensland in the last year measured, according to the ABS.
The legislation is also designed to give police the power to move on homeless people from designated “business and community precincts” for up to a month and repeals the state’s drug diversion program, allowing police to issue more fines for drug possession.
Youth justice minister, Laura Gerber, who tabled the bill in March, said on Tuesday: “Adult Crime, Adult Time is making Queensland safer with victim numbers down 7.2%, and we make no apology for strengthening youth crime laws to ensure there are serious consequences for actions after a decade of weak laws under the former Labor government created a youth crime crisis that saw victim numbers rise 193%.”
In March, she said the 12 offences were “crimes no Queenslander should ever have to experience”.
The parliamentary committee must publish its report on 17 April.
