Harsh measures won’t promote safety: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice official
Alongside child health and legal experts, Anne Hollonds, Australia’s national children’s commissioner, and Katie Kiss, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, have urged the Northern Territory government to reconsider proposed amendments to the NT’s Youth Justice Act 2005.
According to a media release from the Australian Human Rights Commission, the NT government’s
planned legislative changes will significantly affect the NT’s children and their families. The intended amendments include:
“We all want our communities to be safe places where children can thrive, and I’m sure we can all agree that responses to these complex social issues should be based on evidence and expert advice,” Hollonds said in the media release.
Hollonds claimed that, with the proposed amendments, the NT government contradicted the evidence of how to safeguard communities and failed to consult the NT children’s commissioner, who had tried multiple times to offer advice.
“We know that making the justice system more punitive does not work to prevent crime by children,” Hollonds said. “What the evidence shows is that when children are locked up and brutalised by the justice system, they are more likely to go on to commit more serious and violent crimes.”
“Children’s exposure to the justice system is a symptom of systemic racism and intergenerational trauma that compounds complex unmet needs and underlying issues such as poverty, homelessness, disability, health and mental health issues and domestic, family and sexual violence,” Kiss said in the media release.
Kiss highlighted that the NT government and the country’s other governments need appropriately trained professionals to offer coordinated and culturally appropriate support for vulnerable children and their families.
“We should not be further damaging young people and any hope they may have for a better future by introducing harsher measures that don’t actually make communities safer,” Kiss said.
“Commissioner Kiss and I urge the NT Government to listen to the experts such as their own NT Children’s Commissioner and act on the evidence about what works to address the unmet needs for child safety and wellbeing, to prevent crime and to make communities safer,” Hollonds added.
In the commission’s media release, Hollonds said Help Way Earlier! – a comprehensive report her team produced last year – demonstrates how an evidence and human rights based approach to child justice reform can help decrease incidents of crime by young individuals.
Hollonds said the report reflected decades of Australian and international evidence. The report covered the perspectives of children and their families, stakeholder submissions, interviews, and roundtables.
According to the report, reforming child justice would entail:
