A new campaign calling for enforceable national minimum standards to protect the human rights of children in custody has been launched.
Coming in the wake of Closing the Gap data showing the rate of Indigenous children in custody has failed to decline, the Kids Need Better campaign, launched by Amnesty International Australia, is calling for reform of Australia's youth justice system.
Despite the practice breaching Australia's international human rights obligations, children as young as 10 can be held in custody in all but two states and territories.
The four-year campaign will urge governments to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14, end practices such as solitary confinement, spit hoods and the use of adult watch houses, and increase investment in Indigenous-led, community-based diversion programs.
"We all want the best for children, and every child's human rights must be respected," said Kacey Teerman, Amnesty International Australia's Indigenous Rights Campaigner.
"Yet every day, children as young as 10 are locked in Australian prison cells, where they are subjected to abuse, restraint and isolation."
View this post on Instagram
Currently, only the ACT (14) and Victoria (12) have raised the age of criminal responsibility above 10. In Victoria and Queensland, governments have introduced strict new "adult crime, adult time" laws, which can see children face life imprisonment for numerous offences.
Amnesty International Australia said new polling, commissioned by the organisation, shows strong public support for minimum standards in youth detention, respect for children's human rights, and community-led programs that reconnect First Nations young people with Country and culture.
It found 91 per cent of Australians agree police and prison staff should abide by minimum standards for the treatment of children in custody, while 88 per cent agree children's human rights must always be respected and abuse in custody is never acceptable.
"The need for change has never been greater. Kids need better," Ms Teerman said.
"Australia is falling behind other countries, as the international community has repeatedly condemned the failures of its youth justice system and the disproportionate harm it inflicts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain significantly over-represented in detention, with incarceration rates more than 25 times higher than those of non-Indigenous children. On an average day in 2025, 730 children were detained across Australia, with almost 62 per cent identifying as Indigenous.
The Productivity Commission's latest Report on Government Services shows youth detention costs an average of $1.3 million per child each year — more than $3,600 a day — a figure described by the former National Children's Commissioner as a "devastating policy failure".
"The evidence is clear that when a child spends time behind bars, it increases their likelihood of reoffending," National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) General Manager Nick Espie said.
"Needless to say, Australia is not on track to meet its Closing the Gap target to reduce the rate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in detention by at least 30 per cent by 2031, and without national leadership, that won't change."
Speaking at a First Nations justice reform conference in Sydney last week, Justice and Equity Centre chief executive Jonathon Hunyor said the effects of imprisoning children as young as 10 are clear.
"We know this damages children," he said. "It causes trauma in their psychological [and] their social development. It makes them less likely to finish school. Makes them less likely to find a job. It makes them more likely to commit crime."
The organisation is coordinating the New South Wales campaign to Raise the Age with a partner network of more than 150 peak bodies, charities, community services, human rights and civil society organisations. Mr Hunyor said evidence shows setting the age at 10 disproportionately impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, as well as children with disability.
"We criminalise children who experience poverty, who experience mental illness, and who experience homelessness," he said.
"We keep recruiting our children like criminals, and then we complain when they behave like criminals. We keep hurting children, and then we wonder why they act out."
View this post on Instagram
The latest Productivity Commission report, released last week, revealed more than 70 per cent of incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in every state and territory were unsentenced.
Nationally, each First Nations child in detention spent an average of 57 days in custody before sentencing. In Queensland — which incarcerates more Indigenous children than any other jurisdiction — that figure rose to an average of 96.3 days, while in Victoria it exceeded 80 days per child.
Ms Teerman said that whilst every child deserves respect and care, too often, they are "locked away, abused and isolated from their families, communities and culture".
"The best way to create safer communities is to address the root causes of kids in detention, by ensuring children's basic needs are met and investing in proven Indigenous-led, community-based solutions," she said.
