Decades of failed policy and a lack of commitment to change have become the architects for the current issues we see in Alice Springs and some other localities: Marty Aust

THE recent announcements by the Chief Minister (regarding reforms to the Youth Justice Act and Bail Act) are both disappointing and retrograde … WRITES MARTY AUST

THE recent announcements by the Chief Minister (regarding reforms to the Youth Justice Act and Bail Act) are both disappointing and retrograde.

The amendments have been proposed without any stakeholder engagement or consultation with the sector and appear purely political. A lack of engagement and transparency in law reform has become a hallmark of this government as highlighted by the dissolution of the Legislation Scrutiny Committee in September last year.

There is a belief in the community that locking up children in detention centres makes the community safe. That is a lie. It in fact has the potential to drastically worsen the safety of the community in the long term. If you want to stop crime you need to deal with the underlying causes of crime and address those factors.

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Until we do that we will see no reduction in crime, research based evidence and indeed the lived experience and history of the NT criminal jurisdiction shows this to be true.

There is a belief in the community that the court and judicial officers do not care about youth crime. That is a lie. The criminal justice system has been let down for decades by successive Territory governments that have resolved to put politics ahead of the welfare of the community. Currently the criminal justice system is being left to pick up the pieces without ever being provided with the funding, infrastructure and tools to successfully roll out and transition to a therapeutic model.

The proposed reforms are contrary to the recommendations of the final report of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT.

Rather than committing to a full scale roll out of reforms following the publishing of the final report the government has slowly unrolled a series of watered down reforms in a piecemeal fashion. That approach has certainly impacted upon the effectiveness of moving to a therapeutic-based system.

We have seen a failure of commitment to adequately fund, staff and source infrastructure to support the community and vulnerable youths in our community. It is startling to see a commitment of $5 million being allocated to further detention facilities and infrastructure when that money could have and should have been allocated to simple initiatives that would have already been capable of better protecting the community and balancing the rights of young people at risk.

Our shameful incarceration and treatment of Aboriginal youth will yet again be front and centre. When closely scrutinised, the crime statistics published late last week revealed a significant reduction in areas of traditional youth oriented crime, including in particular property offending. Whilst there were some significant increases in areas of offences against the person including domestic violence, assaults and alcohol fuelled offences, this is offending that is predominantly being committed by adult offenders.

Simple measures such as fully funded diversionary programs in remote communities, late night drop-in centres and community youth centres, funding and training of a specialist youth policing team, greater funding for larger and more experienced and specialist Youth Outreach and Re-engagement Teams, better funding arrangements and outsourcing of high needs trauma informed specialist residential service providers and improvements in supported bail accommodation initiatives such as the provision of qualified health professionals and social workers and a secure lockdown model facility, are but a very few changes that would make a wholesale difference to our current situation.

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Young people who are unduly incarcerated or over exposed to the criminal justice system eventually become dangerous recidivist offenders. Decades of failed policy and a lack of commitment to change have become the architects for the current issues we see in Alice Springs and some other localities. Rather than committing to improving the situation, yet again we see retrograde action that is destined to fail in the long term.

Marty Aust is the president of the Criminal Lawyers Association of the NT