Historic justice reinvestment commitment to cover Mampu-Maninjaku program

Community-led initiative aims to prevent crime

Historic justice reinvestment commitment to cover Mampu-Maninjaku program

The federal government has announced Mampu-Maninjaku – a community-spearheaded crime prevention, alcohol and drug counselling, and diversion program delivered by the Central Australian Youth Link-Up Service (CAYLUS) – as the latest initiative to be funded by the Commonwealth’s largest-ever justice reinvestment commitment. 

This commitment includes: 

  • $69m over four years from 2022–23 to support up to 30 community-led justice reinvestment initiatives under the National Justice Reinvestment Program, with ongoing funding of $20m per year from 2026–27 
  • $12.5m over four years to design and establish an independent National Justice Reinvestment Unit to coordinate and support justice reinvestment initiatives at a national level, with ongoing funding of $2.6m per year from 2026–27 
  • an additional $10m over four years to support place-based justice reinvestment partnerships in Central Australia, under the $250m plan for “A Better, Safer Future for Central Australia” 

The Justice Reinvestment in Central Australia Program chose Mampu-Maninjaku as the second initiative it would fund after an independent panel’s stringent assessment process, according to a joint media release from Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and Northern Territory Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. 

“The initiative demonstrates our government’s continued commitment to working in partnership with First Nations communities to develop local solutions to divert at risk adults and young people away from the criminal justice system,” said Rowland, Australia’s attorney-general, in the joint media release. 

“First Nations people have developed this initiative; it provides a local solution to address the drivers of contact with the criminal justice system,” added McCarthy, also Indigenous Australians minister, in the joint media release. 

According to the media release, the Mampu-Maninjaku program aims to address the over-representation of First Nations individuals in the criminal justice system and alcohol and drug use challenges via a partnership consortium with the Australian Childhood Foundation and the Southern Tanami Kurdiji Indigenous Corporation. 

“This initiative will have a positive impact for people in and around Mparntwe Alice Springs through targeted support to the communities of Nyirripi, Willowra, Yuendumu and Outstations,” McCarthy said. 

Justice reinvestment

According to information from the attorney-general’s website, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are still over-represented in every aspect of the criminal justice system over three decades following the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 

The joint media release explained that justice reinvestment is a long-term, community-led strategy seeking to prevent crime, strengthen community safety, decrease the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults and children in custody, and tackle the problem of deaths in such custody. 

McCarthy said the federal government aims to collaborate with First Nations communities on community-headed justice reinvestment programs. 

In the media release, Australia confirmed its commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, including outcomes 10 and 11 on priority reforms and justice targets, to lower the incarceration rates of First Nations people and their contact with the criminal justice system. 

“We know that reducing the incarceration of First Nations people and strengthening community safety can only be achieved through initiatives led by First Nations communities,” Rowland said. “These local solutions will deliver real and lasting change, and I am committed as Attorney-General to the continued success of the government’s justice reinvestment programs.”