Over two decades of campaigning finally bears fruit
Just before 10pm on 3rd November 2016, the Youth Justice and Other Legislation (Inclusion of 17-year-old Persons) Amendment Bill passed the House. The bill will increase the upper age of a child from 16 to 17 years and establish a regulation-making power to transfer 17-year-olds from the adult criminal justice system to the youth justice system.
Just before 10pm on 3rd November 2016, the Youth Justice and Other Legislation (Inclusion of 17-year-old Persons) Amendment Bill passed the House. The bill will increase the upper age of a child from 16 to 17 years and establish a regulation-making power to transfer 17-year-olds from the adult criminal justice system to the youth justice system.
17! - keep 17 year olds out of adult prisons
Queensland is the only state in Australia to treat 17 year olds as adults in the criminal justice system.
In 1992 when the Juvenile Justice Act was passed by Parliament, the State Government said: “It is the intention of this Government, as it was of the previous Government, to deal with 17-year old children within the juvenile, rather than the adult system, as per the Kennedy Report into prisons. This is consistent with the age of majority and avoids such children being exposed to the effects of adults in prisons, thereby increasing their chances of remaining in the system and becoming recidivists. This change will occur at an appropriate time in the future.” The purposes cited by the Government expressing its intention to stop dealing with 17 year old children in the adult system still ring true today. Eighteen is the age of majority in Queensland and throughout Australia, yet 17 year olds in Queensland continue to be exposed to the deleterious effects of adult prisons. It is time to make this change and stop treating children as adults in the criminal justice system. After two decades, it is time for the juvenile justice system to include 17 year olds. 
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