Amnesty International have condemned the Palaszczuk Government for actively avoiding taking action on the issue of Queensland children in adult watchhouses.
Today they have used all the parliamentary tricks of the trade to avoid finding a solution to the watchhouse crisis including:
- Delaying and shortening question time
- Avoiding answering questions on watch houses
- Attempting to gag the debate over the blue card bill (which would allow debate on the LNP-proposed 72 hour cap)
- Filling the ministerial statement time with talk about the federal election and a potential Shorten government
Joel Clark, Indigenous Rights Advocate at Amnesty International said:
“After ignoring the issue for years, the Palaszczuk Government have now done everything they can to avoid taking action on watch houses in parliament today.
“It’s a callous tactic to avoid conceding to their opposition and admitting they’ve got it so wrong until now. The Premier appears to be more focused on protecting her ministers from calls to sack them, than protecting vulnerable children and complying with police procedures. We condemn this lack of action in the strongest terms, and remind Palaszczuk that as a result of her tactics, 67 kids will again be sleeping in watchhouses across Queensland tonight.”
