371-04 Change the present practice of dealing with young people under the age of 18 years as adults within the Queensland criminal justice system

Eligibility - Citizens of Queensland
Principal Petitioner:
M Graves
PO Box 10012
Mount Pleasant
MACKAY QLD 4740
Total Signatures - 36
Sponsoring Member: Timothy Mulherin MP
Posting Date: 29/09/2004
Tabled Date: 29/09/2004
Referred to: Referred Minister on 01/10/2004
Responded By: Hon Warren Pitt MP on 08/11/2004
TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

The petition of the citizens of Queensland draws to the attention of the House the present practice of dealing with young people under the age of 18 years as adults within the Queensland criminal justice system. Young people under the age of 18 are not considered to be adults for the purpose of buying and consuming liquor responsibly, enter a legally binding contract or to vote in local, state and federal elections; however they can be remanded in custody and sentenced to adult prisons. This action is not consistent with the spirit and intention of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989) which has been ratified by the Australian government, nor is it consistent with the recommendations of the Kennedy report into the Review of Corrective Services conducted in 1988.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to regulate for the change which of which a provision exists within the Juvenile Justice Act (1992) s 6(1) which states: the Governor in Council may, by regulation, fix a day after which a person will be a child for the purposes of this Act if the person has not turned 18 years.