What happened? The Queensland Government has expanded its Adult Crime, Adult Time laws to include multiple crimes a youth hasn’t been found guilty of for the last decade.
A bill passed through state parliament on Thursday packaged the expansion of the laws with the removal of a drug diversion program that gave offenders three chances to get help before appearing in court.
Adult Crime Adult Time: The 12 new laws include offences like assault occasioning bodily harm and stalking. Department of Youth Justice data shows there were 2552 young people guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm and 120 young people guilty of stalking in the last decade.
Now the laws have been expanded to include five other crimes which no young person has been found guilty of in the last decade. These crimes are:
Administering poison with intent to harm
Aiding suicide
Conspiring to murder
Using physical force to make someone helpless
Using drugs or chemicals to make someone helpless
Drug diversion: Packaged in with the expansion of the laws was the scrapping of Queensland’s drug diversion program, introduced by the state's previous Labor Government.
The program saw first-time offenders given a warning. Second and third-time offenders were given the chance to get help through a mandatory Drug Diversion Assessment Program.
Fourth time offenders were given a court notice.
The scheme had the stamp of approval from five former police commissioners as well as doctors and other experts.
Split the bill: Queensland Shadow Minister for Youth Justice Di Farmer unsuccessfully sought to split the Bill in two: removing the drug diversion element so that it could go back to committee for further work, while letting the government go ahead with the youth crime law expansion.
Replacement: The state government has replaced the program with a single opportunity for offenders to enter a drug diversion program.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services Dan Purdie said “These reforms send a clear message that there is no safe way to take dangerous drugs as we continue to crackdown on this gateway to addiction and criminal offending.”
Doctors orders: A study from the University of Queensland showed of the 17,644 diversions between May 2024 and March 2025, 62 percent were warnings, 8 percent were first diversions and 30 percent were second diversions.
Australian Medical Association of Queensland president Dr Nick Yim said “treating these people [drug users] as criminals instead of patients will not reduce drug use in our community.”
“It’s this second diversion cohort that benefits most from the program, as people who regularly use drugs are often struggling with other social, health or mental health challenges.”
Thumbnail: Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, AAP