Queensland Consolidated Acts Queensland Consolidated Acts(1) The Governor in Council may, by regulation, fix a day after which a person will be a child for the purposes of this Act if the person has not turned 18 years.
(2) A person of 17 years who commits an offence before the commencement of the regulation will not be taken, after the commencement, to have committed the offence as a child in a subsequent proceeding for the offence.
(3) A court that sentences a person to whom subsection (2) applies for the offence mentioned in the subsection must have regard to the sentence that might have been imposed if the person were sentenced as a child.
(4) The court can not order the person--
(a) to serve a term of imprisonment longer than the period of detention that the court could have imposed on the person if sentenced as a child; or
(b) to pay any amount by way of fine, restitution or compensation greater than that which the court could have ordered the person to pay if sentenced as a child.
(5) Subsection (3) applies even though an adult would otherwise be liable to a heavier penalty which by operation of law could not be reduced.
(6) To avoid any doubt, it is declared subsections (2) to (5) only apply to a person mentioned in subsection (1) who is sentenced after the commencement of the regulation mentioned in the subsection.