Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about recent events in what they now call Queensland, where new laws have been passed to bring more and more young people into contact with the criminal legal system and be locked up. These incredibly harsh laws make breach of bail an offence, while expanding electronic monitoring of young people. Human rights advocates and legal experts have warned this will not only be ineffective but lead to the number of children in detention skyrocketing.

There is wide-ranging evidence that youth imprisonment, which is what these laws seek to achieve, does not rehabilitate. It just creates a lifelong relationship with the criminal legal system. These laws are unjust and inhumane, and violate several human rights commitments, including in Queensland's very own Human Rights Act. Unfortunately, First Nations kids are of course the most targeted by these racist and unjust laws, including by the racist police, thus continuing the genocidal project of governments in this country of separating First Nations kids from their families and their cultures, and locking them up behind bars.

When a First Nations child is born, they inherit and learn cultural wisdom, knowledge and strength. If only it were a reality that our children lived out their birthright in this country so that they lived a journey of peace, culturally and spiritually safe. No First Nations child should be robbed of their birthright in so-called Australia. Our children need family and community to grow up and strive—not be locked up. We must all fight for a world in which all children can live out their birthright and remain surrounded by their family and culture. Stop the genocide— (Time expired)