David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my colleague Senator Waters for making the case for this bill on behalf of the Greens and indicate again that the Greens strongly support this bill. But we're going into committee now to consider potential amendments to actually make this bill more than just a symbolic measure but make it a genuinely practical measure, and to consider amendments that would say the government needs to not just put a commissioner in place but treat the commissioner with respect, listen to the recommendations, take on board the recommendations that come from the commissioner and actually start implementing them in policy. So while we strongly support the creation and the formalisation of the commissioner and the commissioner's role, it's important that we look forward to making sure that the work of the commissioner actually informs decisions of the government and decisions of this parliament. No doubt we will hear from the commissioner the compelling evidence that we have heard, for example, in the youth justice inquiry that I'm grateful to this Senate for supporting and sending out across the country to hear about the youth justice crisis.

We're hearing from that inquiry that there is a youth justice crisis across the country. The submissions make pretty hard reading. In the Northern Territory there are kids as young as 10, 11, 12 being snatched in Alice Springs and the communities that surround Alice Springs—sometimes 100 kays from Alice Springs—because of the brutal laws that are in place in the Northern Territory that refuse bail, that incarcerate kids for minor offences. A 10-year-old kid caught shoplifting, maybe because they were hungry and didn't have any food, in a township outside Alice Springs is picked up by the police and the chocolate bar taken out of their hand. No-one asks if the kid's hungry. The kid's whacked into the back of a police wagon, driven to Alice Springs, thrown into a holding cell in the jail, put into a prison uniform, put in shackles, taken to the airport and then flown more than 1,000 kilometres to Darwin and held in a failing, brutal juvenile detention centre. That's the reality that is happening right now across this country and in the Northern Territory.

For the crime of being hungry, a 10-year-old kid is whisked more than 1,000 kilometres away from their family and put into a broken so-called youth justice system. There's broken connections to family, any education connection is broken, they're brutalised—that's the reality, and the federal government could stop it. The federal government could stop it by supporting measures such as Senator Waters put; by saying they should raise the age. Don't put 10-year-old kids into jail; raise the age. The minimum age should be 14 before even contemplating putting kids through the criminal justice system.

The federal government could intervene directly right now, listen to the voices that are coming from the Northern Territory and stop funding that cruel system. Eighty per cent of the police wages that are taking that 10-year-old out of their community and their township are paid by the Commonwealth. Eighty per cent of the airfare that is sending the 10-year-old kid from Alice Springs to Darwin, more than 1,000 kilometres away from their family and connection to country, is paid for by the Commonwealth. If the Northern Territory government decided to put a spit hood on that kid—and they do; they put spit hoods on kids causing suffocation, trauma, torture—80 per cent of the split hood would be paid for by the Commonwealth. And when the Commonwealth puts that child in a proven-to-be-brutal, failing so-called youth justice centre without education support, without medical support, without any of the care that a 10-year-old child needs, 80 per cent of the cost of that child prison is paid for by the Commonwealth. And we just tick and flick this in this place. We just say that's okay.

I think I know what the commissioner will say about a bunch of this stuff. The commissioner will say that the Commonwealth needs to step up. The Commonwealth needs to take action. The Commonwealth needs to be responsible when they're paying for that cruelty. They should be tying all of our funding with states and territories to say, 'You can't spend Commonwealth money torturing kids.' But unless there's some mechanism in place so that the parliament and the government is obliged to respond to the substance of those recommendations that come from the commission, it will just be more wallpaper over this disaster, more wallpaper over the tragedy that plays out.

We need to see the underlying drivers of so-called offending. If a 10-year-old kid is hungry, maybe don't put the 10-year-old child into that appalling, brutal system. Maybe look at the underlying causes. Maybe provide the housing that is needed particularly so that First Nations communities across this country are not living 20 people to a house or 30 people to a house. If a child is hungry, rather than put them in jail, why not put some breakfast in front of them? Why not ensure that there's food at school? Why not ensure that there's safe transport to get to school where you can have breakfast when you start school and a decent lunch? Imagine if we were investing into putting food on the table rather than kids in jail. That's at the core of this stuff. If we had a system that put food on the table instead of kids in jail, we'd have a system that kept our communities safe, that saved billions of dollars and that made us the kind of country we would aspire to be.

I want to commend the committee recommendations here to say that, when the commissioner speaks after hearing from the community, the government and the parliament must answer and must hear. It is abundantly clear, and we've seen it very recently with compelling legal advice given by two senior barristers—one a silk, one a senior junior—that made it very clear that there is an abundance of Commonwealth powers, constitutional powers, the Commonwealth could use right now to start dealing with the youth justice crisis and to start making direct beneficial laws to prevent the kinds of cycles of violence and disadvantage that we see in the youth justice system particularly and in the criminal justice system more broadly. The Commonwealth has entered into treaties for the protection of the child, for civil and political rights, for UNDRIP. There is an abundance of Commonwealth powers. The trigger under the external affair powers—the ability for this parliament to not just be a complicit bystander but actually take action to deal with the youth justice inquiry.

When our inquiry was down in Melbourne, we heard evidence about what would work. If the Commonwealth funded Aboriginal controlled and run organisations and, instead of putting billions of dollars into state and territory governments to be used to police and coerce and jail, that money was redirected to Aboriginal controlled organisations that know how to help their kids, that know how to connect culture and elders into systems that protect and support kids—we know that that would actually radically reduce youth offending. We know that that would put power where it should be—in the hands of elders and communities who know far better how to raise their kids than some DOCS worker or juvenile justice corrections officer or bureaucrat. That's where the money and the power should go, and we'll no doubt hear that from the commissioner after consulting and talking with the community, but, unless the measures are in place to turn recommendations into action, this bill risks being a feel-good moment changing nothing on the ground.

I respect the work of the minister in the space, and I've seen how this minister is connected to communities and brings that experience and perspective to it, but, as so often happens with First Nations issues, the notional responsibility is given to the First Nations minister, who has the connections and understands, but the power is always elsewhere. The power is with Treasury or with the Attorney-General's Department or with Finance. The ideas and the solutions lie in First Nations communities, but the power is always held over in those other ministries. It's about time that changed and it's about time that the power was bought back and the wealth was brought back and connected with communities, because that's the ultimate solution.

Again, I want to thank my colleague Senator Waters for the work she's been doing on this bill and for her work in this portfolio area. We can do so much more, and this amendment and this committee is a chance to do some of that. (Time expired)