Youth Justice (Circuit Breaker) Amendment Bill 2026
Earlier this month, the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People made a submission on the Youth Justice (Circuit Breaker) Amendment Bill 2026 (the Bill) to the Queensland Parliament’s Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee.
Today, that Committee is scheduled to table its advisory report and review of those submissions.
I make this statement today because I have serious concerns about this legislation and fear for the welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in Queensland who will be disproportionately impacted if it passes.
Make no mistake, I support the overarching objective behind the Bill to improve community safety and reduce youth crime by establishing a structured rehabilitation program.
But this Bill will not deliver it.
It lacks safeguards. It lacks minimum standards. And it carries risks that will fall hardest on the children it claims to help.
I am absolutely supportive of evidence-based alternatives to detention. Some models have proven to provide legitimate rehabilitation and support to address the underlying causes of children’s risk-taking behaviours…. But this proposed Circuit Breaker model is not one of them.
The Circuit Breaker Bill is detention wearing a different name, without the safeguards that come with it.
Hidden in plain sight in this Bill is a provision that allows Circuit Breaker camp ‘guards’ to avoid reporting harm to a child if they have a ‘reasonable excuse.’ There is never a reasonable excuse to stay silent when a child is being harmed.
This exact approach has already been tried and failed. In 2013, the Queensland Government opened its youth boot camps with the intention of reducing youth reoffending. It did not. An independent evaluation found almost two-thirds of the participants reoffended, no better than detention, and at more than twice the daily cost. The camps were scrapped in 2015.
Yet here we are, once again. The Queensland Government is proving it will continue to turn a blind eye to the evidence, with our children left to bear the consequences.
The Bill is not built on a therapeutic model and does not guarantee a child access to any of the services we know are needed to address underlying causes of child offending, including mental health care, a disability assessment, trauma-informed practice, alcohol and other drug treatment or family therapy.
The Bill would send children to remote camps, far from family, community and Country, and it puts their wellbeing and their rights at risk.
We know First Nations children and young people thrive when they are connected to family, community, culture and Country. This connection is a protective factor for our children, and the remote locations proposed in this Bill will only weaken it.
We need early intervention. We need to be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations (ATSICCOs). We need our governments to listen to communities and the numerous taxpayer-funded reviews and inquiries.
These are not big asks. They are calls to be heard – calls for our governments to look at the harm they are causing and choose to do what we already know works to improve the safety of our communities.
A rights-based approach must urgently apply to all youth justice reform, including the child's right to be heard. Our children must be at the centre of all decision making.
I am calling on the Queensland Government to listen to our children and to the communities who know best.
This Bill should be withdrawn and rebuilt with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities at the table.