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From apologetic to hardline: Queensland and Northern Territory’s backflip on tackling youth crime

“Please, I beg you, do not just put it in the filing cabinet,” Pat Anderson, an Alyawarre woman and prominent Indigenous leader, told the first hearing of the royal commission into youth detention in the Northern Territory. “The very survival of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory depends on this commission making a real impact here.”

That was 2016. Footage of teenagers in the Don Dale detention centre – one stripped half-naked, hooded and strapped to a chair – was likened to the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister who called the inquiry, was “deeply shocked”.

On the back of the national outrage, the Northern Territory reformed its practices in youth detention in 2018, promising that “never again” would young people be subject to mistreatment in detention.

Related: ‘Tough on crime’ measures have failed in the past. The Northern Territory should not resort to them | Sophie Trevitt

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A year later, many of those changes were reversed and the rhetoric changed to “backing our frontline staff”. Now the Northern Territory is on the verge of passing new laws that human rights advocates say not only cancels out the work of the royal commission, but moves the needle in the opposite direction.

The politics of youth justice has followed a similar trajectory in Queensland over the past few years.

In 2016, the state faced claims young people were mistreated in detention – including being shackled, hooded and placed in isolation – and, in 2019, a new youth justice strategy aiming to keep children out of prisons was announced.

But less than a year later, with an election approaching, the state performed an about-face and adopted a new “hard line”. Last month, Queensland introduced laws for increased police powers and a presumption against bail for children accused of some offences.

For both states – where the majority of incarcerated youths are Indigenous – the oscillation from shame to ruthlessness has occurred in the space of a few years.

“Care and empathy never lasts long for Aboriginal people,” says Maggie Munn, a Gunggari woman, and the Indigenous rights campaigner for Amnesty International.

“People are outraged for a hot sec, then they’re back to carrying on about their issues.”

Youth justice a vehicle for ‘scoring political points’

The day after Queensland’s youth justice laws passed through parliament in May, the state released its annual crime report. The headline outcome was that the number of “unique youth offenders” was at its lowest level in a decade.

The crackdown has been largely based on claims that about 10% young offenders represent a “hardcore” group and are responsible for about half of all youth crime. But the laws seem to be more about decreasing the volume of drumbeating on the issue than reducing the volume of actual crime.

Townsville chief superintendent Craig Hanlon told the ABC last month he thought there was a perception that crime was worse than in reality.

The local narrative in Townsville that (mainly Indigenous) young offenders are terrorising law-abiding (mainly white) citizens has been amplified by some politicians, police, residents and media outlets for the past decade.

It is a similar story in Territory’s main centres, Darwin and Alice Springs. Local discussion has been led in recent months by a story on A Current Affair that included claims streets had been “surrendered” to young criminals and that the royal commission was to blame.

It’s very easy for people to see young black kids in this country and automatically think they’re up to no good

Maggie Munn

Meanwhile, statistics show the number of young offenders in the Territory decreased by 9% in 2019/20.

Sophie Trevitt, a lawyer who worked with Aboriginal children in Alice Springs at the outset of the royal commission, said both the NT and Queensland announcements of recent youth justice laws came on the back of a sustained media and political campaign.

“There are a few things at play but certainly what we’ve seen from successive governments is both sides of politics using youth justice as a mode of scoring political points … off how harsh they can be to young people,” Trevitt said.

Trevitt said the initial response to the royal commission by the Territory’s new Labor government was “extremely positive” but that the way crime policies had shifted from extremes would have an impact on young people.

“There is no doubt the constant backflipping makes the situation worse for those communities.

“Even if you just think about the amount of money that goes into holding the royal commission, responding to the royal commission, devising programs that will deliver good outcomes, then refusing to fund them because the political situation has changed, spending money expanding Don Dale to lock up more children. That money has all gone to nowhere.”

‘Back to the dark days’

The other issue shown clearly in research is that tough approaches do not prevent crime – in fact they have the opposite effect, often creating recidivist offenders.

Sally Sievers, the NT’s acting children’s commissioner, told the ABC this week that improvements in youth offending and recidivism rates always “have at their core reform measures focused on reducing the numbers of children and young people on remand”.

Related: Northern Territory’s new youth justice ‘crackdown’ will harm Aboriginal children, justice groups say

Cheryl Axelby, the co-chair of advocacy group Change the Record, said the new laws would take the Territory “back to the dark days”.

“The evidence is very clear – the younger a child comes into contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to become trapped in the criminal justice cycle and go on to offend in the future,” Axelby said.

“[The government] might think these law changes will be popular in the short term, but they are doomed to fail.

“Denying children bail shuts down pathways out of the criminal justice system, and forces kids behind bars when they could be in the community.”

In a statement this week announcing new laws would be brought to the Territory parliament on urgency, minister for families Kate Worden attempted to allay human rights concerns. She said the Labor government had inherited a broken system in 2016, and that it had established new bail support and youth outreach systems that did not exist previously

“The changes we’re introducing will build on this government’s vision of a youth justice system that contributes to community safety and reduces reoffending by young people,” she said.

“Our investment in community youth justice programs has meant that hundreds more young people have active case management and receive interventions that change their behaviour.”

‘What these kids need is support’

Statistics showing a decrease in crime rates are, of course, cold comfort for community members impacted by crime. No criminologist, human rights advocate or politician denies that existence of crime in the suburbs.

But for many there is an overwhelming feeling of frustration that communities in the Northern Territory and Queensland have missed an opportunity to reshape narratives around evidence-based solutions, rather than emotional or political responses.

At the height of concern about treatment of children in youth detention, discussion turned to whether punitive, harsh approach inside detention actually created subsequent problems with youth crime.

Related: Agreement to raise Australia’s age of criminal responsibility to 14 unlikely as states go own way

Both the Queensland and Territory governments perviously acknowledged that fact. Former Queensland minister for youth Di Farmer said in 2019, before the pivot in policy: “By placing young offenders in detention, they are more likely to re-offend.”

Now the language has become almost militaristic. In February, when announcing new laws that were the result of a review that lasted six days, Queensland police minister Mark Ryan said recidivist young offenders would be targeted “with all the force and resources at our disposal”.

Munn said that communities were over-focused on the role of police and prisons in solving issues around crime.

“Because they know nothing else, they think nothing else works,” she said.

“The media and social media has a really big part to play in that. There’s a disconnect between what’s happening and what the situation is reported to be. A lot of that comes down to the way it’s framed.

“A large part of that I think is racism. It’s very easy for people to see young black kids in this country and automatically think they’re up to no good.”

Munn said the constant shifts in policy were also detrimental to children engaged with state systems.

“When programs that have a track record of success are battling an ever-changing ground every three to four years, they have no certainty about their work. They can’t plan for expansion, they can’t plan a suitable program.

“What these kids need is support … So long as the don’t have the support they need, kids are going to end up in youth detention and from there the outcome is bloody grim.”