Deputy Premier Steven Miles said amendments to the youth justice laws were difficult but ultimately essential to ensure community safety.

“In this case, we had a court finding that said that young people could no longer be held in watch houses,” Miles told ABC Radio on Friday.

“We were advised by the solicitor-general that if we didn’t make these changes immediately, the young people in watch houses would need to be released to the community.

“They were in watch houses because police believe they’re a danger to the community.

“We were faced with a very difficult situation – legal advice that said the only way we could keep the community safe was if we immediately addressed the technicality the court had found.

“So that’s what we did.”

The amendment follows a pivotal Supreme Court ruling against the Police Commissioner and Youth Justice Department over the lawfulness of holding remanded children in police watch houses, rather than in youth detention centres.

The ruling forced the government to urgently revise the act in amendments attached to a child safety bill.

The Palaszczuk government’s steadfast defence continues to draw harsh criticism from the opposition, the Greens and Katter’s Australian Party after rushing the legislation through parliament without proper scrutiny.

The LNP accused the government of “trashing the parliament” and Opposition Leader David Crisafulli condemned the government as “arrogant, out of touch and using its numbers to rush through legislation”.

“We witnessed perhaps the darkest 24 hours in Queensland Parliament in a long, long time,” Crisafulli told reporters on Friday.

“Queenslanders weren’t listened to, and the entire parliamentary process was used as a doormat by the state government,”

Crisafulli said of the amendments.

“No one wins when that happens.”

Greens MP Michael Berkman called rushing the amendments “a blight on democracy” and suspending a child’s human rights “disgraceful”, while KAP’s Robbie Katter called it “unbecoming and regrettable”.

Advocates such as the Queensland Human Rights Council, the Queensland Law Society and the Queensland Council of Social Service have roundly criticised the changes.

However, Miles said the amendments formalise a practice that has been in place for 30 years and the government had little choice but to make the necessary changes.

“We had to make the best choice we could faced with the facts that we had, and that’s one of the challenges of being in government.

“The community overwhelmingly said to us that they are concerned about violent offenders being released to the community without proper rehabilitation, and so we’ve heeded that message.”

His comments echoed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer and her department chief on Thursday, who insisted the changes ensured merely “business as usual”. and maintained longstanding practice.