Crisafulli uses new data to defend youth crime laws ‘incompatible’ with human rights

Premier David Crisafulli has defended his government’s new youth crime laws after his own attorney-general conceded they would be a violation of human rights.

In documents tabled to Queensland parliament, and seized on by the United Nations, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the laws were “incompatible with human rights” but the state’s youth crime situation was “exceptional”.

As a result, the Queensland Human Rights Act would be overridden to pass the legislation this week.

On Sunday, as he released new police youth crime data in Ipswich, Crisafulli was asked how he was able to push through the laws, despite the admitted human rights issues.

“The knowledge that if we do early intervention and rehabilitation and purpose, we can turn the young lives around,” he said.

“Because of a failure to have consequences for actions, it’s caused an absolute sea of carnage for victims across the state, and they are first and foremost our priority – so, too, is making sure that we can turn the tide on those repeat offenders numbers.”

The data showed there were 50,315 reported youth crime offences this year in Queensland, up to the end of last month.

The South Brisbane police district had the most crimes reported, but the two districts with the most serious repeat offenders – Far North (78) and Townsville (68) – were both in the north of the state.

Crisafulli said the figures showed the urgency of the Making Queensland Safer Bill currently before state parliament.