Turning Back the Clock: Controversial Youth Justice Laws Passed in NT
Media Release - 5th August 2025
The Central Australian Youth Justice coalition is deeply saddened to hear of the youth justice legislation that was passed last week in Northern Territory Parliament.
The changes will not increase community safety but instead serve to further dehumanise and criminalise already vulnerable and marginalised children and young people. CAYJ Co-Chair Josh Brown states, “Children and young people require support, not a punitive response”. The Finocchiaro CLP government describes the current situation as a 'catch and release' program, this is deeply offensive language that is intended to dehumanise First Nations children targeted by police. The changes are yet another example of the CLP playing politics with children's lives and creating division across a community that is already hurting.
Youth justice reform has been a hot topic in the Northern Territory for the past eleven months, however the highly politicised narrative that young people need “tougher consequences” remains a myth. Particularly when no young people were consulted regarding the reforms, let alone the specialised youth service providers working tirelessly to support them. The changes include:
1. Changes to youth diversion; more children and young people entering the formal youth justice system at an earlier point. This is despite the evidence base telling us that answers lie outside of carceral systems. When we can provide a child with community-led alternatives that are therapeutic and respond holistically to the family’s needs, we better equip families to respond to their young people, rather than systemic intervention that causes further harm.
2. Changes such as removing detention as a measure of last resort, that will see an increase of children and young people being sent to youth detention centres. Again, all evidence suggests this will increase the likelihood of further reoffending in the future. This is not how we create safer communities for all Territorians.
3. Changes to the use of force permitted within detention facilities, including the re-introduction of spit hoods, we are already seeing children and young people leaving youth detention as broken individuals, disconnected and disoriented from their families, support and systems of care that want to hold them through challenging years of development. Reintroduction of punitive tools that are proven to harm and traumatise children will only worsen outcomes for young people leaving youth detention.
4. We have seen this government disregard and abolish structures of accountability such as the Youth Justice Advisory Committee (YJAC), that works to strengthen the integrity of the youth justice system of the Northern Territory. The Corrections Minister described YJAC as “red tape”, rather than see the value and integrity of the 17-year legacy of YJAC in providing a cross-sector response from both government and community sector representatives.
These reforms go against 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory where recommendations were made following outrage from the international community about the use of spit hoods, reiterating that previous cases of injustices have been ignored. This is no longer about a “tough on crime” approach, but a campaign to dehumanise young people and make a mockery of youth justice and Human Rights.
The Closing the Gap 2025 Annual Data Compilation Report, released last week by the Productivity Commission has shown that the Northern Territory is worsening in its response to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in the criminal justice system.
CAYJ Co-Chair Kirsten Wilson states “these changes are intended to continue the punitive approach of the Finocchiaro government towards First Nations children and young people. They will not create safer communities across the Northern Territory. They will leave children, young people, families; and ultimately, our community, traumatised and hurting.”
Media Contact: Kirsten Wilson – 0447 452 277