Queensland Government Pushes Forward With Its Authoritarian Agenda

Since January 2025, all eyes have been on the agenda the Trump administration has been forging in the United States, however a similar political path has been underway in the Australian state of Queensland since the Liberal Nationals took office last October, as, just like the US president’s plan, state premier David Crisafulli is attempting to legislate the winding back of the clock.

Crisafulli has ended a path to treaty with First Nations and paused the provision of gender-affirming hormone treatment for trans teens perhaps for good. The leader of the Queensland Liberal Nationals Party has too rolled out the most draconian law-and-order program of recent times, which targets primarily Blak kids, and now the reactionary minister is denying human rights to all constituents.

The conservative Queensland government’s approach to governing the state has many of the hallmarks of the Trump crackdown on its domestic population, which include eroding the rights of nonwhite constituents, targeting transgender and gender diverse people, progressing an authoritarian law-and-order agenda and denying the rights of all and sundry.

In terms of the Australian jurisdiction, Crisafulli’s agenda can easily be termed as something of an attempt to return to the state’s colonial roots. The colonising of Queensland has long been noted for its particular brutality. And the long-term reign of the conservative Queensland premier Joe Bjelke-Petersen from 1968 to 1987, still appears to inform political opinions in the “Sunshine State”.

Crisafulli’s rollout of his reforms in terms of the crackdown on youth, denial of trans healthcare and ending the truth-telling and treaty process were a dramatic undertaking in themselves, however the recent announcement of additional tough-on-crime reforms, coupled with a decision to not extend the rights of citizens, trigger questions as to just how far this administration is seeking to go.

Adult politicians locking up kids

The Palaszczuk Labor government preceding Crisafulli commenced a severe youth law-and-order agenda in early 2023, so by last year’s state election campaign both majors were in a race to the bottom in terms of cracking down on kids, which was despite young crime rates having halved over the prior 14 years, and this was when the now premier revealed his “adult crime, adult time” policy.

The adult crime, adult time regime was passed prior to last Christmas and it involves kids as young as 10 convicted over any of 13 serious criminal offences, facing “adult-level” sentences, which include potential life imprisonment and mandatory minimum non-parole periods. The Liberal Nationals also removed the principle of prison being a “last resort” when punishing youths.

“We’ve had 10 years of youth criminals getting a greenlight from Labor. Adult crime, adult time is a redlight on youth crime,” said Crisafulli in a 1 April statement, as he was announcing the amendment legislation that seeks to expand this draconian regime, and he said this despite former premier, Antastasia Palaszczuk, having commenced the youth crackdown in the first place.

The reform bill currently before parliament serves to extend adult sentences that apply to 20 additional criminal offences, so they’d apply to youths convicted of such crimes, with these reforms being based on the advice of an expert legal panel. And these amendments will further result in a breach on the prohibition of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment being used against kids.

Queensland youth justice minister Laura Gerber outlined on the bill’s announcement that “it is likely that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will be impacted more by these amendments, due to their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.” And she added that it “could result in more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being imprisoned for longer periods of time.”

Denial of human rights

The Palaszczuk government passed the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld), which is an enlightened move by any administration in this rights deficient country. However, Palaszczuk launched what has progressed to a nationwide crackdown on youth crime, when she twice suspended the Act in order to enact a youth breach of bail offence and to permit the locking up of kids in adult watchhouses.

The February 2024 launched Independent Review of the Human Rights Act produced its report last September, and it contained 70 recommendations, which had implications relating to the right to housing, the right to a clean environment, the right to be free of gender-based violence, and it also sought to end the overrepresentation of First Nations people in the state’s prison system.

However, the Crisafulli government rejected all the human rights upholding recommendations, as it claims they weren’t about uplifting victim’s rights, which is its main concern, although this assertion has been disputed, on the basis that victim’s rights were addressed in the report.

In terms of his government’s rights concerns, Crisafulli said earlier this month that when he talks about human rights, he means the right of “someone to put their child to bed at night and know they’re safe”, “the right of someone to go in the morning and get in a car and go and earn a living”, as well as “the ability of young offenders to turn their lives around”.

Bjelke-Petersen revisited

Associate Professor Hannah McGlade in conjunction with the Human Rights Law Centre has lodged a complaint about the draconian law-and-order regimes launched primarily against First Nations youths by Queensland, as well as in the Northern Territory and Victoria. Yet, Crisafulli responded to this by outlining that his parliament will determine how to keep his state safe, not UN “boffins”.

The reactionary Queensland premier ended the truth-telling and treaty process Labor had established with First Nations, claiming it would “create more division”, on the day he progressed adult crime, adult time, while in January, his government launched a review of puberty blocker use for trans kids, along with preventing the prescribing of the lifesaving treatment in the interim.

The Crisafulli government has further decided to scrap pill testing, another lifesaving intervention, as well as having flagged the broadening of the power Queensland police have to wand people, or run metal detectors over them in public in order to locate any concealed knives, so that they can perform this procedure anywhere, not just in designated areas.

So, the shock and awe over Trump’s regressive law reforms can just as easily be experienced when paying attention to Crisafulli’s Queensland. However, the only difference appears to be that the Queensland premier doesn’t quite have the personality or the pull to command the attention of the leader of the increasingly authoritarian free world.