Minority Report: QLD to allow pre-emptive arrests of children

The race to the bottom on criminal justice in Queensland has hit a new low, with rushed laws to significantly increase the number of children behind bars in the state.

Queensland’s human rights-abusing new crime laws will allow police to arrest a child merely if they believe they are likely to contravene a bail condition in the future.

These new powers have been compared to the Minority Report by the state’s Human Rights Commissioner, while others say they will lead to “racialised and class-based” policing.

The Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023 introduces breach of bail as an offence for children. Under current laws, if an adult breaks a bail condition they face up to two years imprisonment - but children are exempt from this.

The reforms will allow for children to be charged with an offence if they breach a condition of their bail, and also give police the power to arrest a child if they “reasonably suspect” they have breached, or are about to breach, a condition of bail.

It will be lawful for a police officer to arrest a child without a warrant if they reasonably suspect they are “likely to contravene, is contravening or has contravened the condition for the person’s appearance or another condition of the undertaking on which the person was granted bail”.

Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall compared these powers to the movie Minority Report, where technology allows police to arrest criminals before a crime is committed.

“I haven’t seen the movie but I’m told Minority Report confronts this is an issue - we simply can’t allow these extraordinary powers to be given to police without a proper process of scrutiny,” McDougall told ABC RN Breakfast.

The bill also scraps the current mandatory requirement to consider alternatives to arresting a child who is on bail for a prescribed indictable offence.

The Queensland government has acknowledged that these reforms are in breach of the state’s Human Rights Charter, and has included an override mechanism to get around this.

Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy raised significant concerns with the new police powers to arrest a child based on a suspicion they will breach bail, before this actually occurs.

“We are concerned that the expansion of police powers to monitor bail compliance will result in operating police patrols in ‘hot spot areas’ and instigating these bail compliance checks has all the hallmarks of racialised and class-based targeted responses,” Kilroy told the state government in a submission.

“We are particularly concerned that the power given to police officers as the gatekeepers of the criminal legal system who at times use their discretion disproportionately.”

In its submission to the government, McDougall said there is now a “very low threshold” allowing police to arrest a child for doing something that would otherwise not be criminal.

“This provision would permit arrest when a police officer merely suspects that a young person is likely to engage in that conduct at some future point,” the Human Rights Commissioner said.

“There are no criteria or safeguards in the provision to explain how a police officer is to form this opinion.”

The Australian Lawyers Alliance has also “strongly opposed” the new laws, saying they will lead to the further incarceration of young people and their entrenchment in the criminal justice system.

“A presumption in favour of depriving children of their liberty, without reference to their individual circumstances is contrary to Australia’s obligations under international human rights conventions,” the Australian Lawyers Alliance said.