The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls has condemned the Northern Territory Government’s proposed “youth justice” laws as a violent and deliberate escalation of state harm against children, particularly Aboriginal children.

Under the proposed amendments, police would be empowered to detain children in police watch houses for up to 48 hours, question them without a parent, guardian or trusted adult present, and expand police powers under the guise of “public safety”.

The National Network rejects these laws outright.

‘These are not reforms. This is state violence, said Debbie Kilroy. ‘The Northern Territory Government is attempting to normalise the caging, interrogation and isolation of children under some of the harshest and most oppressive conditions in the country. Shame on this government, and shame on everyone who stands by while they wage this concerted attack on children,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

The proposed laws come amid ongoing warnings about the conditions inside Northern Territory watch houses, including severe overcrowding, degrading treatment, lack of humane toilet access, and the detention of children in environments never designed for their care.

‘Police watch houses are not places of safety. They are sites of punishment, fear and coercion,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

‘Aboriginal children are already mass represented at every point of contact with the criminal legal system because of colonisation, poverty, racism, child removal, policing and systemic abandonment. These laws will deepen that violence and funnel even more Aboriginal children into cages,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

The National Network said the proposal to allow police to question children without an adult present represented a profound attack on children’s rights and created conditions ripe for coercion, intimidation and abuse of power.

‘No child should ever be interrogated by police alone. The fact this government is even proposing it should horrify the entire country,’ said Tabitha Lean.

‘Children deserve care, housing, safety, food, healthcare, community and connection; not interrogation rooms, police cells and surveillance,’ said Tabitha Lean.

The Network also condemned the timing of the proposed laws, introduced alongside attacks on the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and broader moves that further expand state control over Aboriginal children and families.

‘Our National Network members are watching governments dismantle protections for Aboriginal children while simultaneously expanding police and prison powers against them. This is not accidental. It is structural violence,’ said Tabitha Lean.

The National Network warned that the NT Government is continuing to pursue punitive responses despite overwhelming evidence that incarceration harms children and increases long-term criminalisation. 

‘We do not punish children into safety. We do not cage children into wellbeing. Every expansion of child imprisonment powers is an expansion of trauma, institutionalisation and lifelong harm,’ said Tabitha Lean.

The National Network stands with Aboriginal communities, families, legal advocates and organisations resisting these laws and calls for their immediate withdrawal.

For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226.