Youth justice advocates and lawyers are looking into a class action lawsuit against the Queensland government who may have been illegally detaining children for decades.
Last week the state government rushed controversial new laws through parliament that will allow children to be locked up in adult prisons and watch houses for the next three years.
Queensland’s youth justice minister, Di Farmer, told media that the legislation, which requires a suspension of the state’s Human Rights Act, followed advice from the state’s solicitor general.
It has been reported by The Guardian that the advice indicates children had previously been unlawfully detained.
“There's no transparency or accountability in relation to what that legal advice is,” said human rights lawyer Debbie Kilroy.
“I'd strongly suggest that the government make that advice public, so at least we can understand what has been done and why it has been done, because it looks very racially motivated.”
The amendments were tabled by Police Minister Mark Ryan last Wednesday during debate on a Child Protection Bill, and passed through parliament late on Thursday evening.
Buried amongst 57 pages of amendments, the Queensland government also made provisions to retroactively exempt itself from litigation for any likely unlawful practice in the past.
Earlier this month a Queensland court ordered the immediate transfer of three children who had been locked up in watch houses for extended periods. The government conceded it had no lawful basis for detaining them in police holding cells.
“We are concerned as always, as lawyers are and hopefully the community, about retrospective laws,” says Ms Kilroy.
“It's not good ... so we want to have a look at that and in these amendments.
"It's about appropriate orders [not being] made under those sections of the Act to hold children.
“We need to look at that legally, because 30 years is a long time. That's a lot of children that have been harmed and held illegally in the watch house without the relevant orders made by a court."
Ms Kilroy said she and her organisation, Sisters Inside, are working with KCs at the moment on possible litigation.
"We are very concerned about the harms being perpetrated on children and those children are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.”
Last week, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended Labor’s decision to fast-track the proposed law changes, saying it was “standard practice” and that it was their duty “to keep to community safe.”
But advocates say "draconian" laws for children are not the answer.
“We've got to stop harming children,” says Ms Kilroy.
“If we want to live in a community, where we're all safe, then all harm must end for everybody.”
