Victim groups speak out after youth crime law change

Victim groups have voiced feelings of betrayal after a key change to Queensland's youth crime laws was revealed.

They argue the government's rewording of the "detention as a last resort" clause won't make a difference while youth justice advocates criticise a perceived push towards locking up more children.

"We are proposing to make it plain the intention has always been that a child may be detained," Police Minister Mark Ryan said today.

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In response to ongoing criticism that too many teen offenders are being arrested then released, the government announced it would delete the line from the Youth Justice Act that sets out a child should only face "detention as a last resort".

The provision forms part of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory.

Labor said it would replace the wording with a new clause that "a child should be detained in custody where necessary, including to ensure community safety, and where other non-custodial measures of prevention and intervention would not be sufficient".

The new bill goes on to say these "are clarifying provisions and are not intended to change the law".

"Changing the words does not change the law," Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.

"They clarify the law, they clarify what we always said," Premier Steven Miles said.

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Voice for Victims advocate Trudy Reading said she believed the move was more about changing perceptions than changing the law.

"I feel a little bit betrayed," Reading said.

"It's almost like we're trying to have the wool pulled over our eyes."

The amendments are part of the government's the new community safety plan for Queensland.

"We've called it an irresponsible smoke screen," Aimee McVeigh from the Queensland Council of Social Services told radio station 4BC.

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"What we mean by that is Queensland is already detaining more children than any other jurisdiction in Australia and yet we have the highest rates of re-offending.

"When we see a so-called community safety plan and amendments to our laws which are supposed to keep our communities safe, which further entrench the things that we're already doing, it is the definition of insanity."

When asked if more children would be put in detention as a result of this change, Miles said it is "a difficult question to answer".

"We'll have to see how it's applied," he said.

"Clearly there are some judges and magistrates that already take community safety into account in the way we intend for them to and others who perhaps don't."