Children as young as 10 will face adult jail time in Australian state

The Australian state of Queensland has passed laws which will see children as young as 10 subject to the same penalties as adults if convicted of crimes such as murder, serious assault and break-ins.

The government says the harsher sentencing rules are in response to “community outrage over crimes being perpetrated by young offenders” and will act as a deterrent.

But many experts have pointed to research showing that tougher penalties do not reduce youth offending, and can in fact exacerbate it.

The United Nations has also criticised the reforms, arguing they disregard conventions on the human rights of children and violate international law.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) – which won the state election in October – made the rules a hallmark of its campaign, saying they put the “rights of victims” ahead of “the rights of criminals”.

“These laws are for every Queenslander who has ever felt unsafe and been a victim of youth crime across our state,” Premier David Crisafulli said after parliament passed the bill on Thursday.

Leading up to the vote, both sides of politics had claimed that Queensland was in the grips of a youth crime wave, and that a more punitive approach was necessary to combat the issue.

But data from the Australian bureau of statistics, shows that youth crime has halved in Queensland across the past 14 years, that it hit its lowest rate in recorded history in 2022, and has remained relatively steady since.