Submission to National Children's Commissioner: Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing Reform

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on youth justice and child wellbeing reform. We are academics from QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research. Together, we have wide-ranging expertise in law, human rights, health and social justice.

We have enclosed a submission for your consideration, in which we draw on bodies of evidence from law, human rights, health, developmental science, economics and ethics. Our submission also draws on a study conducted by three authors of this submission, which we include as a separate attachment. Informed by this evidence, we make three recommendations:

• Recommendation 1: Sentencing legislation must be reformed to increase the use of diversion programs and to ensure incarceration of young people involved in the youth justice system is genuinely used only as a last resort.
• Recommendation 2: The minimum age of criminal responsibility must be increased to at least 12 years old.
• Recommendation 3: Programs responding to socio-economic disadvantage in young people involved in the youth justice system must be continued and expanded.

Further details are provided in the full submission below.

These recommended reforms are feasible, and will align Australia with our international human rights obligations. These recommendations apply equally to all Australian states and territories.

We would be pleased to provide you with any further information or advice that may assist.