Charlotte Walker (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The very first time I spoke in this place, I thanked in advance the First Nations emerging leaders from across the more than 250 nations of this ancient land, and I said how much I look forward to those future elders joining me in this place to represent their communities. That is my hope for the future of this place and our country. However, to achieve that hope for the future, we know that we need to ensure our First Nations children and young people have the support and opportunities which will allow them to stand strong in their culture and pursue their hopes and dreams. To this end, the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Bill 2026 delivers on Labor's commitment to an independent national commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. Embedded in this enabling legislation is a strengths based approach to changing the devastating inequities our First Nations children and young people experience.

Hope for the future is what this bill is about. It's why we are establishing a national commissioner, who will do three essential things. The first is independent oversight and public accountability, telling the truth in public about what is working and what is failing. The commissioner will have the discretion and independence to undertake inquiries and provide reports which seek to identify the issues and barriers faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. Second, the commissioner will be charged with hearing directly from children and young people and supporting them to assert their rights and interests. They will be able to provide a structured, ongoing youth voice, especially for those who may feel alienated or are in care or detention or remote communities. Third, the commissioner will be able to use the experiences and voices of young people to advise the Australian government on the development and delivery of relevant policies, programs and services. This advice on systemic reform across silos is essential, because children's lives are not divided by government departments or portfolios or services.

We need policies, programs and services that understand and respond to the context that children and young people experience and recognise and respect the 65,000 years of the rich, living, continuous culture that they are able to lay claim to. The power of such a central coordinated function must not be underestimated. Organisations and children's commissioners from across Australia have been calling for the creation of this role for many years. This is not a symbolic post. It is not a nice-to-have. This is a practical instrument for accountability, for listening and for better policies and programs—ones that stop young lives being pushed into systems that harm and instead start reshaping those systems in line with strengths based and community led solutions. This mission is critical.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is undoubtedly one of the most powerful collaborative pleas for action ever written in our country. One critical passage in it reads:

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

This commission is about restoring hope for that future. Through the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, governments have agreed to work towards restoring that hope and measuring our progress.

On the Closing the Gap dashboard, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged zero to 17 in out-of-home care was over 50 per thousand in 2024. That is over 12 times higher than for non-Indigenous children. National reporting has showed youth detention rates around 21 times higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, compared to other young people—and I, for one, am very disturbed about the 'lock them up' narrative that is becoming prevalent in some state governments now. Whilst no youth justice system is perfect, I am pleased that, at least in South Australia, the state government has kept youth detention very separate from the adults' correction system. This is because our aim must always be to change the course for young people, so that they can have productive and fulfilling lives. Morally, how can it be otherwise? When we are looking at youth detention rates 21 times higher than those for the non-Indigenous population, it is undeniable that focused, independent child- and youth-centred advocacy is essential. This reform will support delivery on the National Agreement on Closing the Gap targets to reduce overrepresentation in out-of-home care by 45 per cent and youth detention by at least 30 per cent by 2031.

We also know that participation in the labour force for First Nations young people is significantly lower than for other young people. The legislated National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People gives those commitments a driver—someone tasked every day with creating and amplifying solutions and tracking progress. The Albanese Labor government is committed to funding the commission properly. We are investing $8.4 million a year, ongoing, to support its operations. It is undeniable that this investment is well spent. Out-of-home care and detention are among the most expensive interventions that governments fund. Prevention and culturally safe, community led alternatives are both morally right and economically rational.

But, beyond systems and budgets, this is about our children. It is about the children and young people that are the next generation of the longest-continuing living culture on this planet. Every one of those young people has the right to a safe home, a good job and a healthy life in a community where they feel a sense of belonging. This newly legislated independent office is a step towards ensuring that there is hope for their future.