Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System
7 February 2025
On 3 February 2025, Past President Greg McIntyre SC, Indigenous Legal Issues Committee Chair Tony McAvoy SC, and Senior Policy Lawyer Dr Adam Fletcher attended a hearing of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for its inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system. The Law Council emphasised that there have been unacceptable regressions in child justice laws and policy in various jurisdictions, and called for more national coordination and federal leadership on the issue.
In accordance with Australia’s international human rights obligations, children should only be detained as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. 10‑13 year-olds should never be sent to prison, and for older children who commit offences there are many better ways to deal with them than putting them on a fast-track to the adult criminal justice system. Evidence shows that the kinds of ‘crackdowns’ we have seen recently will achieve little, and in fact are likely to increase recidivism over the longer term. Regressive child justice laws and policies disproportionately affect First Nations children, who are still detained and imprisoned at shameful rates decades after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and eight years after the Don Dale Royal Commission.
Criminal justice is primarily the responsibility of the states and territories. However, as emphasised by the Law Council’s representatives, prevention, early intervention and diversion responses rely upon whole-of-government system design occurring well beyond the criminal justice system. Multiple jurisdictions and portfolios need to be engaged.
The Law Council’s witnesses, along with most others appearing before the inquiry, urged the Committee to support the recommendations of the National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds in her recent report on child justice Help Way Earlier!, and to show leadership by taking its obligations to children seriously in Commonwealth law (for example, by raising the minimum age of responsibility for Commonwealth crimes and introducing a Human Rights Act).
Last Updated on 12/02/2025