Queensland Consolidated Acts Queensland Consolidated Acts(1) This section applies to a court or police officer in making any of the following decisions relating to a child in custody in connection with a charge of an offence--
(a) whether to release the child or keep the child in custody;
(b) if releasing the child, whether to release the child without bail or grant bail to the child;
(c) if the child is being, or has been, granted bail, the conditions that should apply to the grant of bail.
(2) The court or officer must consider the need to ensure that, if the child is released--
(a) the child will surrender into custody in accordance with the bail or the conditions of the release, whichever is relevant; and
(b) while on release, the child will not--
(i) commit an offence; or
(ii) endanger anyone's safety or welfare; or
(iii) interfere with a witness or otherwise obstruct the course of justice, whether for the child or anyone else.
(3) The court or officer must have regard to any of the following matters of which the court or officer is aware--
(a) the nature and seriousness of the offence;
(b) the child's character, criminal history and other relevant history, associations, home environment, employment and background;
(c) the history of any previous grants of bail to the child;
(d) the strength of the evidence against the child relating to the offence;
(da) if the child is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person--any submissions made by a representative of the community justice group in the child's community, including, for example, about--
(i) the child's relationship to the child's community; or
(ii) any cultural considerations; or
(iii) any considerations relating to programs and services established for offenders in which the community justice group participates;
(e) any other relevant matter.
(4) In deciding whether to release the child or keep the child in custody, the court or officer must decide to release the child unless the court or officer is required by this Act or another Act to keep the child in custody.
(5) The court or officer must not release the child if the court or officer is satisfied there is an unacceptable risk relating to a matter mentioned in subsection (2).
(6) If the child is before a court and the court has information indicating there may be an unacceptable risk relating to a matter mentioned in subsection (2), but does not have enough information to properly consider the matter, the court must remand the child in custody while the information is obtained.
(7) The court or officer must not release the child if the court or officer is satisfied--
(a) the child's safety would be endangered if the child were released; and
(b) in the circumstances, there is no reasonably practicable way of ensuring the child's safety other than by keeping the child in custody.
Examples for paragraph (a)--
1 The child is heavily intoxicated.
2 Someone has threatened to harm the child as soon as the child is released.
(7A) If required by the court or officer for subsection (3)(da), a representative of the community justice group in the child's community must advise the court or police officer whether--
(a) any member of the community justice group that is responsible for the submission is related to the child or the victim; or
(b) there are any circumstances that give rise to a conflict of interest between any member of the community justice group that is responsible for the submission and the child or victim.
(8) In this section--
keep the child in custody includes, for a court, remand the child in custody.