Territory Families Minister Kate Worden announces $24m for Youth Justice staff, as Don Dale construction delays drag on

Territory Families minister announces $24m in staff funding, as new Don Dale centre faces fresh construction delays.

The Territory government has committed millions of dollars to staff the new Don Dale centre, even as construction deadlines blow out once again.

Territory Families Minister Kate Worden announced on Friday that the upcoming budget would secure a further $24m in youth justice staff funding over the next three years.

Ms Worden said the funding would allow the centre to employ 137 Darwin Youth Justice Officers, and another 60 in Alice Springs.

“This baseline funding will ensure that we will have a state-of-the-art centre that will have the right programs running, the right clinical staff here onsite,” Ms Worden said.

“But also we’ll have enough staff going through youth justice offices to make sure that young people are not just safe here, but also that they get the right wraparound services.

“So that when they walk out, they actually walk out with more resilience.

“(So) that they themselves are able to change their lives once they leave.”

Territory Families Minister Kate Worden went to the site of the new Don Dale at Holtze to announced that the upcoming budget would secure a further $24 million in staff funding over the next three years.

Mr Worden said the staffing budget would ensure the centre met the new Model of Care, which was released five years after the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.

However, Mr Worden clarified the majority of the staffing budget would not be spent until mid-2024, as the detention centre was only 60 per cent complete.

About $1.3m of the additional funding would be spent in the next financial year, with $12.9m allocated for 2023-24, and an ongoing $10m promised from 2024-25.

However, Ms Worden said an assessment would be held in three years time to evaluate “the true running costs of our youth justice centres”.

The government has budgeted $8.7m to maintain current Youth Justice Officer numbers for 2023-24, and has promised $8m in annual ongoing funding.

An additional $5.05m will be spent over the next three years for more clinical staff and enhanced wellbeing programs to support the implementation of the new model of care.

While $1.7m will be specifically spent over two years implementing the new model of care.

The new Don Dale was anticipated to open in July 2023, however Ms Worden cited Covid and supply chain issues for the ongoing construction blowout.

Under the current timeline, the centre is expected to open nearly six years after the Royal Commission’s February 2018 deadline for a new purpose-built facility.

Ms Worden said additional delays were because the Holtze centre, which is next to the adult prison, was not the preferred location.

The Holtze site has been criticised as part of a ‘prison pipeline’ for young people, while also being isolated from services, family and employment opportunities.

To address this, Ms Worden said services had been moved on-site, bus services would provide family access, while bushland blocked the view of the prison.

Despite recommendations the site provide accommodation for 60 kids, Ms Worden said the new centre would have only 48 beds.

“We will have enough beds for young people,” she said.

However, the latest March Territory Families data said there was an average of 47 kids locked up in Darwin, with the number of children in detention on the rise since 2021 changes to the bail act.

Originally published as Territory Families Minister Kate Worden announces $24m for Youth Justice staff, as Don Dale construction delays drag on