First Nations leaders accuse Queensland LNP of ‘intent to destroy' Indigenous communities as youth crime laws pass

The Guardian

23-05-2025

When more than 100 First Nations leaders gathered for a major summit in Brisbane this week, they set out to give a voice to the young people who bear the brunt of the state's punitive policies but are largely absent from the debate about them.
Jerome Wano, a Wakka Wakka and Ngāti Tūwharetoa man, was among dozens of participants who shared their thoughts on how to chart a path towards a better future for Indigenous children.
'Through the voice [referendum], we saw that we reached out our hands to the same system and, once again, it said no,' says Wano, 29.
'We have to change the way that we're doing things.'
Held over two days, the Bandarran Marra'gu Gathering Strength summit issued an extraordinary statement on Wednesday, accusing the Queensland government of acting with 'the intent to destroy' Indigenous communities by 'forcibly transferring' children to the child protection and youth justice systems.
The event was organised by the Queensland Human Rights Commission in response to what community leaders described as a 'long period of inertia' on Indigenous affairs policy at a state and federal level after the failed referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.
But their calls appear to have been ignored.
Even as the group gathered at the State Library of Queensland to condemn the 'egregious breaches of human rights' under the state's youth justice reforms, on the other side of the river, the parliament was bolstering them.
The LNP's so-called 'adult crime, adult time' laws were expanded on Wednesday, allowing juveniles to be tried as adults and face harsher penalties for more offences.
The move not only defied objections from the Indigenous community but also United Nations experts, who this week said the laws were 'incompatible with basic child rights'.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, spoke to reporters shortly after the bill passed.
'Here's my message to the United Nations: you don't control me, and I don't answer to you,' he said.
'I say to the United Nations, we make laws to deal with one of the biggest issues this state has ever faced, and it's a generation of repeat, hardcore young offenders.'
Indigenous young people make up 70% of people in youth detention in Queensland on an average day.
The LNP has previously acknowledged their reforms will likely put an extra strain on youth detention centres and disproportionately affect Indigenous children.
The latest political rhetoric does not instil much hope in Katie Kiss, the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, based in Brisbane.
'I think populist politics has taken priority here,' she says.
'There's a perception … that Queenslanders see the need for punishment, rather than prevention and support. And so the investment has been going into those areas rather than actually nurturing our children.'
Her predecessor, Mick Gooda, says the LNP 'set the tone' for its relationship with First Nations people when it scrapped the state's truth-telling inquiry as its first act of government.
'Ever since, we've been under a cloud,' he says. 'They've ignored us.'
In their statement, First Nations leaders called for the premier to meet with their representatives. They also demanded a review to the terms of reference for a child safety inquiry, announced on Sunday, to ensure it acknowledged the 'systemic harm' against Indigenous children.
The premier's office did not respond to questions about whether it would meet these requests.
In a statement, the minister for youth justice, Laura Gerber, says the government is providing kids with effective early intervention and intensive rehabilitation, alongside its tough youth crime laws.
Gooda says the federal government also bears some responsibility and suggested the prime ministeruse national cabinet to 'call the states out' for human rights breaches.
'Hopefully this big majority and the big voter confidence in the Labor party will give them some give them the nerve to go and take that on,' he says.
A spokesperson for the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said the federal government takes its human rights obligations seriously and there were 'existing mechanisms, including ministerial councils' which provide an opportunity to consider such matters.