Australia now spends over one billion dollars per year incarcerating children.
Recent elections in the Northern Territory and Queensland saw conservative oppositions gain support due their tough-on-youth-crime stances.
In the Northern Territory, this led to a change of government in August 2024. The unassailable evidence is that once the new Government reforms came into effect in mid-2025, the number of young people in custody increased by 20 to 30%, with almost all those young people being Aboriginal.
There is no evidence that youth offending rates are decreasing.
In Queensland, youth crime had been steadily declining in the years leading up to the 2024 election. Following a change of government in October 2024, a key policy based on "adult crime, adult time" was introduced under the Orwellian-sounding legislative title, "Making Queensland Safer."
So, is this hardline approach actually working? The Queensland government claims it is but lacks evidence to support the assertion. In a context where youth crime was already declining, it is misleading to suggest that the new policy is causing further reductions. Instead, the number of young people in custody is rising, the proportion held on remand is growing, and Aboriginal overrepresentation is worsening.
New South Wales has taken this trend further by introducing bail laws for children that are harsher than those for adults, prompting the Supreme Court to intervene repeatedly. Judges have noted that if a 17-year-old were slightly older, they would likely be granted bail, yet as children, they often are not.
Victoria is following suit, introducing what have been described as the toughest youth bail laws in Australia, largely in response to a law-and-order media narrative rather than evidence.
It is in this environment that Southern Cross University will host the next forum on Children's Rights and the Law Conference online on 23–24 October.
The conference will bring together perspectives from research, practice, advocacy, and lived experience across family law, child protection, and youth justice. It aims to stimulate dialogue on how the law does, and should, respect the rights of children and young people.
Presenters include Australia's National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollonds; Proud Palawa First Nations lawyer Maggie Blanden, focusing on justice, climate justice, and human rights; Sue-Anne Hunter, inaugural National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People; and many more. Southern Cross University law academics will moderate panel sessions, with young people with lived experience actively involved.
