Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) across the country governments are implementing extremely punitive youth justice legislation that will further criminalise and target young people, particularly First Nations young people,

(ii) on an average night in the June quarter of 2020, about half of all imprisoned children were First Nations, despite making up approximately 5% of the overall youth population,

(iii) often this legislation has been enacted without proper consultation and engagement with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, medical professionals and human rights and youth justice organisations,

(iv) particularly in the Northern Territory, the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory have not been fully implemented, and

(v) it is time to take a new evidence-based approach to youth justice, by redirecting money away from prisons into stronger, caring, self-determined communities; and

(b) calls on the Commonwealth to work with governments across the country to:

(i) abandon regressive approaches to criminal justice and instead implement justice reinvestment interventions to youth offending, including culturally safe diversion, restorative justice programs, family and community support and culturally safe health, education, and youth support services, and

(ii) consult widely, particularly First Nations people, to implement culturally responsive systems that keep communities safe and families together.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While the Commonwealth is unable to set the individual approaches of states and territories to their criminal justice systems, the Morrison government is committed to engaging with all Australian governments by working in partnership with Indigenous Australians through the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and the justice policy partnership to address the drivers of Indigenous incarceration and improve justice and community safety outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pauline Hanson's One Nation supports this motion. Firstly, honesty is essential, so let's be blunt. This applies to kids of all skin colours. The current catch-and-release policies are failing. Incarceration fails can turn juvenile offenders into hardened criminals. The foremost responsibility is community safety, to keep people safe from derailed juveniles. The root cause, though, is at a community level and involves the whole family, because the root cause is dysfunctional families abusing kids, neglecting kids and allowing kids to wag school and roam the streets. Elders in white and black communities have lost their influence. Solutions, though, need to be rigorous and not feel-good pandering. We need proper, tough, rigorous programs like boot camps that care and that develop meaning and purpose, such as Three Big Rivers, Hard Yakka, Black Rock and what they're trying to do now in Townsville at One Community One Standard. We support this motion.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that motion No. 1093 be agreed to.