A former Liberal National party leader has called for strict rules on how long a child can be held in a Queensland watch house amid a heated political debate between the major parties over youth justice.
Deb Frecklington, the party’s MP for Nanango, said she was “appalled” to learn that the “barbaric” practice of detaining children in watch houses was still occurring due to the state’s youth detention centres reaching full capacity.
In 2019, the LNP proposed a provision to existing legislation that would transfer children from watch houses and into temporary accommodation within 72 hours.
A day after a Townsville magistrate ordered the release of several children who were being held in a watch house, Frecklington on Friday renewed that call.
She said if Labor had passed this amendment at the time, “the same terrible practices would not be happening today”.
“It is obvious this issue has raised its head again due to complete government inaction,” Frecklington told Guardian Australia.
“Four years ago, when this issue reached crisis point and it was exposed that kids were being held for up to 40 days in watch houses, I immediately proposed a plan to put an end to this barbaric practice.”
Frecklington’s calls for a more humane response come amid a heated youth crime debate, where LNP and Labor governments have pushed for more punitive measures.
The LNP has repeatedly called for breach of bail to be made an offence, with experts warning the proposed laws would result in more arrests and more kids in custody.
“There has to be consequences for actions,” said the LNP’s leader, David Crisafulli, on Friday.
“Breach of bail has to be an offence.”
The Queensland police’s operational procedures manual states children should only be detained more than one night in a watch house in “extraordinary circumstances”.
Police this week revealed that 88 children were held in watch houses. Since the start of the year more than 25 children had spent more than three weeks in watch houses.
The decision to grant bail to the group of children in Townsville has been criticised as a “media stunt” by the state’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, prompting fierce pushback from civil liberties veteran Terry O’Gorman.
The Palaszczuk government has been criticised for a “kneejerk” response after announcing a suite of tougher crime measures in December and the construction of two new youth detention facilities.
On Friday Miles said the government was expediting the roll-out of the youth detention centres and would look at other temporary solutions.
“We’ll continue to look at all the capacity options available to us,” Miles said. “But it was always clear that when we introduced laws – that were tougher, that presumed against bail – that was always going to result in an increase of the number of … young people in detention,” Miles said.
“Let me be very, very clear. The first priority is community safety.”
The comments are in direct opposition to the calls by more than 50 experts and organisations for the government to be “smarter not tougher” on crime and invest in evidence-based solutions, like early intervention and prevention measures.
Queensland’s public guardian, Shayna Smith, said a police watch house “is not conducive to the safety and psychological wellbeing of children.”
“This office has held longstanding concerns about the prolonged stays of children in police watch houses. While I welcome the exploration of alternate options to watch houses, it is important that they are evidence-based and meet the safety and psychological needs of children,” she said.
“Youth justice is a complex issue and I support calls to direct funding and resources towards early interventions that address the underlying circumstances that lead to offending behaviour.”
The chief executive of Sisters Inside, Debbie Kilroy, said “children need to be the priority” and that building more detention facilities would cause harm.
“We need to hand the money over to communities … not build more cages for children that is only going to ensure more crime, not less crime,” Kilroy told reporters at a press conference last week.
The head of Queensland’s police taskforce into youth crime, George Marchesini, last week said they cannot arrest their way to a solution.
