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

Thank you. In casting our eyes to WA, we've seen repeated judgements from the Supreme Court of Western Australia about the unlawful detention regime in WA, where the WA government feels perfectly fine moving children into adult prisons in conditions we know will abuse their human rights. The WA government has been on notice now for over 12 months that the conditions of detention in Banksia and in prisons where children are held in WA—again, overwhelmingly First Nations children—are an abuse of the human rights of those children. We're talking about children, in some cases, as young as 10 years of age. Twice now the WA Supreme Court has pointed out the unlawfulness of the brutal detention regime for children in WA, and what has the WA government done? Nothing. It has permitted the abusive conditions to continue. In just the last few short weeks, we've seen that end in the ultimate tragedy: the death of a 16-year-old boy in a WA prison.

What will it take for the Attorney-General and the Albanese government to say, 'Enough's enough,' draw a line in the sand and say, 'There must be minimum national standards to protect children'? Who has the international obligation? It's the Commonwealth government that's entered into the international treaties. That's where the obligation lies, and they cannot avert their eyes when state after state—we could have another speech entirely devoted to the abuses in the Northern Territory in notorious institutions like Don Dale. We could look at the recent findings about the brutal, abusive detention in Tasmanian facilities. I know that in my home state of New South Wales—which, thankfully, has seen the number of children detained reduced over the last decade, pushing against the national trend—those institutions such as Reiby are abusing the rights of children as young as 10 years of age. What will it take for the federal Attorney-General and for the Albanese government to say, 'Enough's enough' and that they will implement national minimum standards?

This is a campaign that millions of Australians want to succeed. They want to see the minimum age of criminal responsibility raised to at least 14. I want to commend those brave First Nations grandmothers who have come out and done this work, the lawyer groups, the land councils—the people of goodwill across this country who want it to end. I can't make this contribution without acknowledging the courage of Sophie Trevitt, human rights lawyer, who I know my colleagues in this chamber knew closely and who devoted her life to this cause. In the name of Sophie Trevitt but more so in the name of all those kids who, as we debate this, are in a cell by themselves, facing a spit hood, facing isolation, taken from country, taken from family—in their name, let's raise the age.