Submission to the 2024 Senate Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system

We made a submission to the Australian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system. Our submission made recommendations on three issues where we have expertise and see negative impacts on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people in Australia. Those issues are:

• the age of criminal responsibility, which we recommend be raised in all jurisdictions to at least 14 years of age, without exception;
• the use of pre-emptive policing tools, which we recommend should not be used on children and young people; and
• the use of solitary confinement in youth justice centres, which we recommend should be subject to more stringent safeguards.

While largely regarded as issues arising under state and territory laws, we argue the Commonwealth Government can and should play a role in leading and coordinating reform on these issues. For example, the Commonwealth can raise its own age of criminal responsibility for offences created under federal legislation. And it must commit Commonwealth funds to investing in alternatives to criminal legal system interventions and greater support for at-risk young people

We also consider how the Commonwealth could use its constitutional power to pass legislation that creates minimum standards for children and young people involved with the criminal legal system, for example, by incorporating the Convention on the Rights of the Child into Australian law through a National Children’s Act.