Common Grace Media Release - Friday 18 September 2026

Common Grace is calling on the Australian Government to act on today's landmark Senate Inquiry into youth justice and incarceration, urging a national shift away from punitive "tough on crime" laws and towards prevention, community-led support, and enforceable national standards for children in the justice system.

The report from the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, released today, finds that Australia’s youth justice system is expensive, damaging to children and failing to adequately address the causes of offending or improve community safety. The Committee recommends national minimum standards for youth justice and a new National Child and Community Safety Taskforce to drive coordinated reform across Australia. 

Common Grace says the findings echo years of evidence from legal experts, health bodies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that Australia's youth justice systems are failing children - and failing to keep communities safe.

The Inquiry, first referred in 2024 and reintroduced in October 2025 after being interrupted by the prorogation of the 47th Parliament, examined the treatment of children across Australia's youth justice systems, amid a wave of "adult crime, adult time" and bail-restriction laws introduced in NSW, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Victoria in recent years.

The scale of the problem

The report draws on updated Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showing that, on an average day in 2024–25, 4,147 young people were under youth justice supervision across Australia, with four in five under community-based supervision and one in five in detention. Fifty-six per cent of young people under supervision were First Nations children and 80 per cent were unsentenced.

The overrepresentation of First Nations children is even more stark in detention. On an average night in the June quarter of 2025, 60 per cent of children aged 10–17 in detention were First Nations children, despite First Nations children making up just 6.6 per cent of the general population. First Nations young people were 24 times more likely to be in detention and 17 times more likely to be under community-based supervision than non-Indigenous young people

The Committee found that children entering the youth justice system are often experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage. Evidence presented to the Inquiry included high rates of family and domestic violence, school disengagement, mental health concerns, disability and unstable housing. In one Queensland cohort, 53 per cent had experienced or been impacted by domestic and family violence, 45 per cent were disengaged from education, training or employment and 30 per cent had unstable or unsuitable accommodation

The Committee also found that detention comes at a significant financial cost. More than $1.1 billion of public money is spent on the youth justice system each year, while detention-based supervision cost 3, 635 per young person per day in 2024-2025. 

Common Grace National Director Gershon Nimbalker said the Inquiry's findings should be a turning point for national leadership.

"This report confirms what communities, legal experts, medical professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have told us for years: locking up children fails to make communities safer and does tremendous harm to these kids that need support. 

"The Senate has now clearly recognised that prevention, early intervention and community-based approaches are critical to community safety. The Commonwealth needs to work with states and territories to turn these findings into action."

Common Grace's calls for reform

Common Grace is calling on the Australian Government to:

  1. Invest in prevention and Aboriginal community led early support - scaling up proven, evidence-based models like Pathways to Prevention, Communities That Care, justice reinvestment and place-based initiatives, and backing SNAICC's call for an $801 million investment over four years to expand Aboriginal Community Controlled child and family services nationwide - still less than Australia currently spends on youth detention in a single year.

  2. End the patchwork of protections for children - working with states and territories to establish strong, enforceable National Minimum Standards for youth justice, aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including:

    • guaranteed access to healthcare, education, disability support and culturally safe services;

    • a ban on harmful practices including solitary confinement and spit hoods;

    • mandated investment in community-based, Aboriginal community-led alternatives to detention; and

    • independent oversight and transparent public reporting on detention, use of force, isolation and outcomes for children.

  3. Coordinate national action on youth justice - The Committee recommends establishing a National Child and Community Safety Taskforce bringing together Commonwealth, state and territory agencies across youth justice, policing, education, health, disability, social services, legal services and employment. The Taskforce would also work with the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, child commissioners, young people and community organisations.

Nimbalker added:

"As Christians, we believe every child is made in the image of God and deserves the opportunity to flourish. A child’s access to safety, dignity and support shouldn’t depend on their postcode. We welcome the Committee’s call for national standards, stronger coordination and a public education campaign grounded in evidence about what actually keeps communities safe. Now we need to see governments work together to make these changes real.”

Common Grace is urging the Australian Government to respond to the Senate report and begin working with state and territory governments towards national minimum standards and a National Child and Community Safety Taskforce, while increasing investment in prevention, early intervention and community-led alternatives to detention.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee's report was released on Friday 18 September 2026  and is available here.

Read more about Common Grace’s calls to the Federal Government here - https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_justice_policy_asks

Find our submission to this Youth Justice Inquiry here - https://www.commongrace.org.au/raise_the_age