The Council recognises that this Bill is a response to concerns in the community about alcohol related violence. However, the Council maintains that the response to this issue needs to take into account the right to privacy, the right to freedom of association and the right to due process. All of these rights are recognised in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The QCCL has as its objective the implementation of the rights contained in this instrument in Queensland.
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The Bill undermines the principled asymmetry which is at the heart of the criminal justice system. That principle reflects the proposition that the State with all its resources and powers should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual of an alleged offence.
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The QCCL does not take the view that there is a human right to access alcohol. We note in this regard the discussion of this issue by McMurdo P. and Justice Keane in Aurukun Shire Council and Anor –v- CEO Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing [2010] QCA 37 at paragraphs 43 and 142 to 145. McMurdo P. returned to the issue in the decision of Morton –v- Queensland Police Service [2010] QCA 160.[1]
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Since the end of the 1800’s there has been a shift from the punishment of children to the treatment of children and a clear acknowledgement that their age should be taken into account. This is because children are morally different from adults as a result of the fact that they do not have the same judgment skills, self-control and ability to know right from wrong. Children take more risks, pay less attention to negative consequences, are impulsive and look at short term outcomes and not a long term perspective. They also suffer more from peer pressure.
Because children are impulsive and do not plan for the future, the concept of deterrence has a particularly limited application to them.
These views of the differences between adults and children have recently been profoundly reinforced by modern neuro-scientific research