‘We are doing this for our brothers, sisters’: Protesters turn out again against youth justice bill

The peak body for social services in the Territory has urged the NT Government to abandon “ill-conceived” youth bail reform bill.

A crowd gathered out the front of the NT Parliament on Monday afternoon ahead of controversial youth bail law changes being pushed through. Protest organisers Sara Rowe, Mililma May, Kacie Winsley, Melinda Phillips, Sharna Alley and Tayarrah Morris. Picture: Che Chorley

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THE peak body for social services in the Territory has urged the NT government to abandon “ill-conceived” youth bail reform bill, as a group protested outside Parliament House for the second time in as many weeks.

Northern Territory Council of Social Services (NTCOSS) chief executive Deborah Di Natale said the government did not consult the community sector on the bill despite it being a “critical stakeholder”.

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“This sector delivers key specialist youth programs and is essential to achieving long-term community safety,” Ms Di Natale said.

“All of the evidence shows these new bail laws will not work.

“We call on the NT government to abandon this ill-conceived bill.”

NT Council of Social Service chief executive Deborah Di Natale says she was not consulted on the bill. Picture: SUPPLIED

It comes after Children’s Minister Lauren Moss was questioned about the bill at a press conference yesterday morning where she said the bill was drafted “in consultation with anybody who would be responsible for implementing them”.

“We’ve been doing youth justice work and reform work for five years now, and there have been lots of conversations over that time,” Ms Moss said.

Darwin-based grassroots organisation Uprising of the People held a protest action outside Parliament House yesterday afternoon against the proposed reforms.

Protest organiser and Larrakia woman Mililma May said the reforms made her “so angry I have no words”.

“I do not welcome any of the acts of injustice that are happening on this country and I do not welcome anyone who perpetuate and uphold white supremacy and the deaths of Aboriginal children as a result of trauma that is inflicted by the state,” Ms May said.

Another speaker at the rally, Kacie Winsley, tearfully said her experience visiting kids in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre influenced her opposition to the bill.

A crowd gathered out the front of the NT Parliament on Monday afternoon ahead of controversial youth bail law changes being pushed through. Protest organisers Sara Rowe, Mililma May, Melinda Phillips, Sharna Alley and Tayarrah Morris. Picture: Che Chorley

“It makes me sick to think our young people are being set up to fail in this life, a life that is theirs,” Ms Winsley said.

“We are here today to beg for these proposed reforms not to go ahead.

“This is for our brothers, our sisters, they need us right now.”

The bill, which would remove the presumption of bail for kids for a significant number of prescribed offences, is set to be debated in the Northern Territory Parliament this week.

Today’s group of protesters have indicated they will attend Parliamentary proceedings tomorrow to oppose the bill.

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