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A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck southern Turkey near the Syrian border, setting off panic and further damaging buildings two weeks after the country's worst earthquake in modern history left tens of thousands dead.

Two Reuters reporters said the tremors late on Monday were strong and lasting, damaging buildings and leaving dust in the night air in central Antakya city, where it was centred. It was also felt in Egypt and Lebanon, Reuters reporters said.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said the tremor struck at a shallow depth of two kilometres.

Police patrolled Antakya while ambulances rushed to the quake-hit area near the city centre. Two people fainted, while others filled the streets around the central park making emergency calls on mobile phones.

Reuters saw Turkish rescue teams running around on foot after the latest quake to check on residents, most of whom were living in temporary tents after the tremors two weeks ago.

Muna Al Omar, a resident, said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the earthquake hit.

"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," she said, crying as she held her seven-year-old son in her arms.

"Is there going to be another aftershock?" she asked.

The two larger earthquakes that hit on February 6, which also rocked neighbouring Syria, left more than a million homeless and killed far more than the latest official tally of 46,000 people in both countries.

Smaller tremors have jolted the region in the last two weeks but the Monday quake was the largest since February 6. "It was very strong. It jolted us out of our places," said Burhan Abdelrahman, who was walking out of his tent in a camp in Antakya city centre when the earthquake struck.

"I called relatives in Syria, Adana, Mersin, Izmir, everywhere, to check on them."

Turkey's disaster agency AFAD urged residents to stay away from the Mediterranean coast over a possible 50-centimetre rise in waters due to the quake.

Videos posted on social media, unverified by Reuters, showed passengers at Antakya airport taking cover in panic as the quake jolted the glass building.

© RAW 2023

Breach of bail will again become a standalone offence for young people in Queensland after an about-face by the state government.

Queensland cabinet ministers have consistently rejected the measure favoured by the opposition to curb youth crime, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk now says it will be reintroduced.

The move had come after listening to the community, she said, and is "in the spirit of bipartisanship".

"The public has been talking about this, and this is a listening government," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.

Asked if the move was simply symbolic, the premier said the legislation to be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday would clarify details.

The government has previously passed laws to reverse the presumption of bail for serious repeat offenders.

In December, Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the last time breach of bail was a crime it didn't work, and the existing presumption against bail was more effective.

As it stands, magistrates take bail status as a factor that carries weight when deciding on penalties if a young person reoffends.

The change will make the failure to adhere to bail conditions a separate offence, and advocacy organisations are concerned that means more children being locked up before going on to reoffend.

"All this will accomplish is a further increase in the number of children in prison at enormous cost to taxpayers and with devastating impact on those children's life trajectories," executive director of the Justice Reform Initiative Mindy Sotiri said in a statement.

"Increasing the use of imprisonment for children, and widening the criminal justice system net so that more children end up locked up, is going to increase the risk of reoffending."

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said he will keep pushing the government on youth justice, including to remove the provision of detention being a last resort.

The move follows Deputy Premier Steven Miles describing a magistrate's decision to release 13 young people on remand as a "media stunt".

"Of course our courts are independent and that is a critically important element of our state and the way we administer our state, but I can tell you what I think,'' he said earlier in February.

"We cannot allow the safety of Townsville residents to be held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices."

The children were reportedly being held in the Townsville police watch house because of detention centre capacity problems.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the youths' release should not have been granted on the grounds of capacity constraints.

"If it is purported that the exclusive reason that bail is granted is because of capacity, I would suggest that is an unlawful reason," he said at the time.

The new youth justice laws are expected to be introduced to the state parliament on Tuesday.

Cabinet has also approved a $42 million youth justice package, including fly-in police officers that can be dispatched to problem areas.

The laws will likely go through a two-week consultation process.

© AAP 2023

A parent advocacy body is calling for the federal government to reform paid parental leave and scale it up towards a full year between carers.

The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the scheme on Monday to outline key areas of reform.

They include a six-week "use it or lose it" provision in the 26-week leave scheme in a bid to incentivise men to use their entitlement.

Ms Dent is pushing for an increase to paid parental leave of up to 52 weeks equally shared between two carers, a boost to the payment rate from the minimum wage to a replacement wage and the extension of superannuation guarantees.

"Australian parents receive far less paid parental leave than parents around the world and it costs children, families, our society and the economy," she said.

"Australia cannot become the best place in the world to be a parent and raise a child if we don't seriously lift ambition on the national paid parental leave system."

Parents At Work chief executive Emma Walsh wants the government to go further and increase paid parental leave to 26 weeks by next year and to 52 weeks by 2030.

Ms Walsh is also pushing for access to the leave to be extended from two years to five to enable greater flexibility.

Both CEOs also argue a more robust scheme is critical in achieving gender equality in the workplace.

"Australia's paid parental leave measures trail behind comparable nations," Ms Walsh said.

"The (legislation) doesn't go far enough if Australia is going to meet its gender equality targets and shift gendered norms that see women expected to take on the lion's share of caring duties in the workplace and at home."

The government's proposed legislation will combine two existing payments into a shared 20-week scheme, expand access through a family income test which people can qualify for if they're over the single income threshold and make it easier for new fathers to access paid leave.

Further tranches will then seek to progressively increase the amount of leave until it reaches 26 weeks in 2026.

© AAP 2023