Newsroom

August 26, 2025

We were told the Queensland Government’s new Adult Crime, Adult Time laws would be the fix to youth crime. But the reality on the ground tells a very different story. If they’re apprehended, some violent teen offenders are still walking free from the courts with nothing more than probation.

Why? Because Adult Crime, Adult Time on its own was never going to work. In fact, it’s had the opposite effect. It appears that judges are handing down lighter sentences because the juvenile offenders’ criminal histories will now follow them into adulthood whether or not a conviction has been recorded.

The idea behind the Youth Justice Act 1992, when first implemented, was to avoid disadvantaging young offenders who may have gone off the rails for a short time but still had a good chance of turning their lives around and becoming upstanding citizens. But the truth is we are not dealing with that type of young person anymore. The cohort of youth criminals we face today are harder, more violent, and more damaged than the kids of the early nineties. The erosion of community standards, the baby-bonus generation and the chase for social media recognition has produced a group of young offenders who are not being steered away from crime but are being encouraged towards it.

Our youth justice laws shield young criminals while punishing everyday people. Families are left living in fear while offenders are given chance after chance to re-offend. That is not justice. Not for the victims who are left to pick up the pieces and not for the offenders who are never forced to face the real consequences of their actions.

When the Katter’s Australian Party put forward our suite of youth justice measures, we made it clear that Adult Crime, Adult Time was just one piece of the puzzle. On its own it couldn’t work. It must be complemented by mandatory minimum sentencing. That way offenders, the courts, and the community know exactly what is coming when the law is broken.

Similarly, mandatory minimum sentencing can only work if there is a proper place to send these offenders. That is why we pushed for relocation sentencing, a bush camp model where young people are taken out of the chaos and dysfunction of their current lives and put somewhere they can learn discipline, develop a work ethic, and understand real consequences for their actions.

Successive Queensland governments have tried to band-aid this problem with slogans and half measures and our communities are paying the price. If we are serious about fixing youth crime, then the government must get serious. Steering children away from a life of crime is a must, but so too is locking up serious, repeat offenders.

Nick Dametto MP