Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As the co-sponsor of this motion, I echo and support my colleague Senator Shoebridge's comments. Time and time again we've seen governments across this country, as Senator Shoebridge said, put out a sad post or a sad Instagram reel talking about the loss of life—in my home state of Western Australia we've lost two children the last two months—to youth incarceration. There has been a flurry of people coming in and out of that state—politicians, former politicians, the previous director-general of corrective services—saying quite publicly that areas like Banksia Hill need reform, that areas like Unit 18 at Casuarina Prison need to be shut down because they are representative of torture.

Children as young as 15 and 16 would rather harm themselves—kill themselves, in fact, by suicide—than be incarcerated or subjected to the torture and trauma in these places. With the death of Cleveland Dodd, the coronial inquest and the harrowing evidence that's already been shared as part of that process, it is beyond time. That a second child died in Western Australia less than two weeks ago means that, as Senator Shoebridge said, the time is up for the wringing of the hands of state governments and territory governments in this country. It is up here tonight.

As a mother of a child—my youngest daughter is 10 years old, and I think about the age of criminal responsibility, which governments in this country would like to lower, and I think about her being incarcerated. I can't remove that level of trauma from my mind. I don't think anybody in this chamber would agree with that. If this was your child, your niece, your nephew, your grandchild, would you want that for them? I hope we see in this chamber tonight an overwhelming amount of support for this motion, because we should. This is the human thing to do. It is with humility that Senator Shoebridge and I have brought this motion forward here tonight. We are frustrated when we hear the constant excuses about why they can't do anything.

We know that 70 per cent of the children that are incarcerated in youth justice—and we can't even use that word because it's not about justice; there is no justice for our children that are incarcerated in this country. Seventy per cent of them are First Nations children, but there are many others—children who are homeless, children who have been in the child protection system, children of migrants and refugees in this country, children who have experienced trauma.

Then we go to the cost. People will often argue with us that this is about a tough-on-crime approach. It costs $1 million per year to keep a child in custody. But we need to have some care and protection for our children in this country when one in six of them is living in poverty.

All of you in this place will sit around and talk about cost-of-living pressures and what it means. But these children and the love, the care and the protection they need is not in an institution. And we have to dismantle that pipeline. That will be your legacy in this place tonight as you vote for this motion. The humanity that you can restore for the future generations of children here in Australia is out here laid bare on the floor for you all, because everybody's watching—those folks watching at home tonight. We know the stories, the media articles that are being shared, about the reintroduction of spit hoods, the deaths of those children in my home state of Western Australia. Yet we will hear politicians provide the lame excuses time after time.

These kids are complex. These kids have disabilities. Well, do you know what? They don't belong in a cage. That's the reality of this situation. Tonight Senator Shoebridge and I bring this motion because jailing is failing in this country. And it's not just a hashtag. This is about our children and the fact that we have the opportunity—the responsibility—to stop youth justice equalling incarceration and jailing the next generation of our children.

Question agreed to.