Amy Remeikis reports in the Brisbane Times (13.3.15) that Queensland is the only Australian jurisdiction to treat 17-year-olds as adults in the justice system, which stands in defiance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
‘Labor did nothing to change the law during the Beattie or Bligh administrations. The LNP took it further, by passing legislation which saw juveniles transferred to adult prisons upon their 17th birthday if they had more than six months remaining on their sentence.
‘Senior lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre Ruth Barson said both sentencing 17-year-olds as adults and holding them in adult facilities “must change”.’