Australia's youth justice and child protection systems are in crisis, a Senate inquiry has been told, with witnesses warning that tough-on-crime policies are being driven by media narratives rather than evidence and are failing to improve community safety.
The Senate inquiry into the youth justice and incarceration system heard evidence in Melbourne on Monday, as governments across the country — both Labor and Coalition — continue to introduce laws increasing penalties for children and young people.
In Queensland and Victoria, children can face life imprisonment for certain offences.
At the same time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain dramatically over-represented in detention — incarcerated at more than 25 times the rate of non-Indigenous children nationally.
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Appearing before the Senate committee, SNAICC - National Voice for our Children chief executive Catherine Liddle said urgent national coordination was needed to move away from punitive justice approaches and toward prevention and early intervention.
"There are steps the Federal Government could take right now that would have an immediate effect on the numbers of our children being incarcerated in youth justice," Ms Liddle said.
She pointed to evidence showing that early intervention — particularly measures aimed at preventing children entering the child protection system — can reduce later contact with youth justice.
Research has consistently highlighted the link between child protection and youth offending among so-called "crossover kids", with the the Sentencing Council previously stating: "A consistent theme of research into the overlap between youth justice and child protection is that, while most children who are known to child protection do not end up as offenders, a significant proportion of children who are charged with offences are known to child protection."
Ms Liddle said the Commonwealth had the power to influence change through the way youth justice and child protection programs are funded.
"It is well within the responsibility and jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Government to change the way Australia's incredibly expensive child protection and youth justice systems are funded to encourage policies like community-led prevention and early intervention services that keep children with their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kin," she said.
"Governments need to step up and honour their commitments. They must be brave and face down populist responses in favour of policies that will work to make children and communities safer."
The federal government has previously maintained youth justice settings — including the minimum age of criminal responsibility — are matters for states and territories.
However, legal advice obtained last year by the Justice and Equity Centre from barristers Kate Eastman AM SC and Emma Dunlop found the Commonwealth could intervene under section 51(xxix) of the Constitution in order to meet its international human rights obligations.
International scrutiny has also intensified. In January, the United Nations Human Rights Council, during its five-yearly Universal Periodic Review of Australia, raised concerns about the "almost constant increase" in the number of people held on remand and the country's "very low age of criminal responsibility". In November 2025, the Australian Child Rights Taskforce wrote to the UN to support a complaint lodged by the Human Rights Law Centre and Indigenous international law experts Professor Megan Davis and Associate Professor Hannah McGlade on the disproportionate impact of youth justice laws on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
In its submission to the inquiry, the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) called for national minimum standards for youth justice. These included raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 without exceptions and banning the detention of children under 16.
VACCA also urged Australia to comply fully with international obligations, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
"The implementation of national minimum standards for youth justice is essential given the experiences of incarcerated Aboriginal children and young people," VACCA submitted.
"This is even more pressing as...several states have recently enacted laws that are likely to result in a substantial increase in incarceration rates of Aboriginal children and young people."
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The Federation of Community Legal Centres, which represents 50 community legal centres across Victoria, said conditions for young people in the justice system had worsened in recent years.
Since its earlier submission in 2024, the federation said "the situation for children and young people in contact with the criminal legal system has deteriorated, not improved".
Despite calls from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urging governments to ensure no child under 18 is sentenced as an adult, the federation said the opposite trend had emerged in some jurisdictions.
"In Victoria, along with Queensland, this is precisely what has been legislated," the organisation said.
They warned that "reforms are already driving increased remand and incarceration of children — despite overwhelming evidence that these approaches cause harm and increase re-offending".
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Ms Liddle told the inquiry governments were increasingly responding to political pressure rather than evidence-based policy.
She said youth justice decisions were being driven in "response to media perceptions of youth crime waves," rather than what "evidence shows is an appropriate or safe response to children who need support".
SNAICC has called on the federal government to take a stronger leadership role in reforming youth justice nationally.
"In a crisis, you cannot keep dismissing child justice as exclusively a state and territory issue," Ms Liddle said. "We strongly urge the Australian Government to take forward these recommendations with urgency equal to the seriousness of the crisis."
