Children's Court of Queensland president Judge Michael Shanahan said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth continued to be "grossly over-represented" in the justice system.

In 2016-17, young Indigenous people accounted for 48 per cent of young people who had a charge "disposed of", a higher rate than in previous years.

A defendant is disposed of when all their charges are either proved, dismissed or withdrawn.

The over-representation of Indigenous youth was even more evident in detention, where two out of every three young people on an average day came from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communites.

That percentage had increased from 67 per cent in 2012-13 to 71 per cent in 2016-17.

"More needs to be done in relation to addressing the causes of offending by Indigenous young people if this trend is to be reversed," Judge Shanahan said.

Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 10 to 17 were 29 times as likely as other young people to have been in youth detention last year.

Youth Affairs Network of Queensland director Siyavash Doostkhah said the government had done the right thing by moving Youth Justice into the Child Protection and Youth portfolio.

But Mr Doostkhah said he was disappointed at the increasing rate of Indigenous youth being incarcerated and called for a clear government strategy to deal with the crisis.

"Bold steps must be taken to put an end to this discrimination, clearly Indigenous young people are being over-policed and not diverted from the criminal justice system," he said.

"This discrimination has a devastating effect on these young people and in many cases pushes them towards lifelong criminalisation."

Mr Doostkhah also called for the Queensland government to adopt recommendations from a Northern Territory royal commission which recommended the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12.

"This will free much needed resources to be diverted to social and health services to deal with vulnerable children in an appropriate manner," he said.

Youth Minister Di Farmer said the Palaszczuk government was deeply concerned about the rates of Indigenous youths in detention and was actively addressing the issue.

"We have established a Youth Justice First Nations Action Board, the first of its kind in Australia," she said.

"The board is made up of youth justice staff from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, who will advise on ways to reduce over-representation of young people in the youth justice system."

Ms Farmer said there was no current plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Queensland.

"The Palaszczuk government is in the advanced stages of transitioning 17-year-olds into the youth justice system, and we note Judge Shanahan said 'the government is to be congratulated on this long-overdue reform," she said.

There was an 8.3 per cent decrease across all courts of juvenile defendants disposed of in 2016-17 compared with the previous year - down to 6479.

A defendant is disposed of when all their charges are either proved, dismissed or withdrawn.

The number of individual young people dealt with decreased from 3743 to 3654.

The average daily number of young people in youth detention was 179 in 2016-17, compared with 186 the previous year.

Last year, 80.9 per cent of all juvenile defendants were either found guilty or pleaded guilty.

Only 90 - or 1.7 per cent - juveniles who were found guilty of offences were sentenced to detention.

Reprimands and other minor penalties were ordered for 35.4 per cent, 21 per cent received probation and 17.6 per cent a good behaviour order.

The 10-year trend did not show a dramatic increase in youth offending since 2007-08.

But a relatively small number of juvenile offenders were again responsible for a large number of offences - 10 per cent were responsible for 43 per cent of proven offences in 2016-17.

More than half of all defendants were aged 15 and 16, while males accounted for 72.8 per cent of all finalised defendant matters in 2016-17.

The majority of young people in detention were on remand - 79 per cent on an average day.

Of all court appearance in 2016-17 at which a detention order was made, 41 per cent resulted in the young person being released from court following sentencing, with no time remaining to serve in custody.

Judge Shanahan said, as recommended in the previous year's report, more should be done to provide facilities other than detention centres for those on remand.

"The government has recently announced the establishment of a number of 'supervised bail houses' which will, hopefully, reduce the number of juveniles held on remand because of otherwise unsuitable residential alternatives," he said.

It took an average of 51 days to finalise cases in the Magistrates Court and 369 days in the Children's Court.