Senator Lidia Thorpe has continued to pursue the lack of action to reform youth justice, using Senate question time to shine the spotlight on the federal government's role.
The questions came after National Indigenous Times reported a number of legal experts at a youth justice inquiry on Monday argued the federal government had more levers they could pull - specifically around funding - to help alleviate a crisis in youth justice which has seen two young people die in the last 18 months.
Senator Thorpe, who has been outspoken in her criticism of the government, said the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, had met with her state and territory counterparts last year about the "huge number of unsentenced children being held in prison around this country—where we know their human rights are being abused".
The Victorian senator added: "Despite your best efforts with these meetings, we know state and territory governments are moving backwards."
Referencing the proposal in Victoria about a change in bail laws, she then asked Senator McCarthy: "Why are state governments ignoring you?"
Senator McCarthy said the government was "deeply troubled around the rising rates of remand" across the country, highlighting the levels of overcrowding seen in facilities, including in the NT, and noted a letter had been sent to all jurisdictions to follow up where they were at with remand changes.
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Across the country, several states and territories have openly flaunted human rights and international obligations by introducing laws which experts say will see more children held in custody. The leaders of both the NT and Queensland have argued this is their electoral remit and refused to apologise for what they say is "keeping the community safe".
Last week, data from the Productivity Commission revealed an increase in the number and rate of Indigenous children and young people incarcerated in Australia, despite a commitment to reverse the rate as per the Closing the Gap agreement.
The federal government - particularly Senator McCarthy - has expressed disappointment and these decisions but reiterated the role of youth justice as an issue for the states and territories, not the commonwealth.
Nonetheless, the hearing on Monday heard several experts argue there was more they could do to ensure different jurisdictions were upholding their obligations.
"The commonwealth could legislate; the commonwealth could develop policy; the commonwealth could direct funding towards activities which promote and facilitate observation of Australia's international human rights obligations," leading Indigenous barrister, Tony McAvoy SC, told the inquiry.
"It is not a question of if the commonwealth should act, but what it should do," he added.
Referencing the testimony in a supplementary question, Senator Thorpe asked: "Will you tell the Prime Minister…and Attorney General, to use the legal powers and leverage we know you have to uphold our international human rights obligations and protect children from ongoing abuse, or will we just see more chats and meetings that go nowhere? That's all we hear from you."
It mirrored comments from lead convenor of the Coalition of Peaks, Pat Turner, who told the inquiry on Monday: "We urge the Commonwealth to use these powers…to drive change in line with the [closing the gap] agreement."
Senator McCarthy said she rejected the imputation surrounding the government's lack of care for children and highlighted the appointment of a First Nations children's commissioner to support Indigenous children and young people.
She reiterated that whilst the government was "making endeavours," the role of supporting children in youth justice across the country "is a state and territory jurisdiction matter".
"It's really important. to be able to communicate in an effective way with state and territory jurisdictions and that is what I am doing," she added.
