Case Explained: Twelve new offences added to Queensland’s ‘adult crime, adult time’ policy bringing total to 45 – Legal Perspective

Offences like unlawful stalking and conspiring to murder are among the 12 to be added to the Queensland government’s third expansion of the “adult time, adult crime” policy. 

Premier David Crisafulli, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington and Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber made the announcement on Sunday morning, detailing the expansion of the policy that sees youth offenders found guilty of serious crimes, including murder, manslaughter, and robbery, charged as adults and face harsher penalties.

The 12 new offences brings the total number of offences under the policy to 45. 

The new offences to be included under the act and their new maximum penalties are: 

• Riot: Life imprisonment
• Abuse of persons with impairment of mind: Life imprisonment
• Conspiring to commit murder: 14 years
• Aiding suicide: Life imprisonment
• Disabling in order to commit an indictable offence: Life imprisonment
• Choking, suffocating or strangulation in a domestic setting: Seven years
• Stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence: Life imprisonment
• Indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16: 20 years
• Endangering the safety of a person in a vehicle with intent: Life imprisonment
• Administering poisoning with intent to cause harm: 14 years
• Assault occasioning bodily harm: 10 years
• Unlawful stalking, intimidation, harassment or abuse: 10 years  

An example of disabling in order to commit an indictable offence was tying someone up before offending against them, while an example of stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence could be drugging someone before offending, such as date rape. 

An indictable offence was any serious criminal charge, such as murder, rape or robbery. 

Ms Gerber said the newly added offences were recommended by an expert legal panel on the metric of harm. 

“The metric is, do these offences cause serious harm to the community?” Ms Gerber said. 

“We will not wait for a 10-year-old to be assaulted, we will not wait for a person with disabilities to be assaulted to take action.” 

She said the 12 months of advice from the expert legal panel would be released soon. 

Mr Crisafulli, citing police data, said the number of victims of crime in 2025 had reduced by 7.2 per cent. 

“Every change we make will be about strengthening the laws after a decade about weakening the laws, and that is our focus,” Mr Crisafulli said. 

“We said at the election that we would embark on a series of changes when it comes to adult crime, adult time and we are determined to do that, and to keep doing that.”

Antisemitism legislation to be debated

The premier also announced the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals bill would be up for debate in parliament this week. 

The new state legislation comes after the Bondi Beach attack on December 14, in which two attackers killed 15 people at Hanukkah celebrations.

“This is a very specific legislative reform for a very specific set of circumstances,” Mr Crisafulli said. 

“We said that we would take on antisemitism, and we said we would take guns out of the hands of terrorists and crooks.” 

He said the legislation aimed to bolster protections around places of worship and curb the use of terrorist symbols and slogans that have incited violence and fear. 

Ms Frecklington said the laws were being updated to ensure people who worship can feel safe at places of worship.