The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (20:02): I move:

(1)That a select committee be established to inquire into and report on evidence-based approaches to reducing the number of children in contact with the criminal justice system in New South Wales, and in particular:

(a)the underlying drivers of children's contact with the criminal justice system, including but not limited to:

(i)school disengagement and educational exclusion;

(ii)out-of-home care, homelessness and housing instability;

(iii)disability, mental health, and alcohol and other drug [AOD] issues; and

(iv)family dysfunction, poverty, and intergenerational trauma.

(b)the availability, effectiveness, and evaluation of evidence-based and community-led responses that prevent offending and reoffending, including:

(i)diversionary programs and early intervention strategies;

(ii)alternatives to remand and custodial sentencing;

(iii)support services targeted at at-risk children and families, particularly in regional and remote areas; and

(iv)vocational, training, employment, and mentoring initiatives.

(c)the specific and disproportionate impact of the youth justice system on Aboriginal children, and the adequacy of current strategies to Close the Gap on Aboriginal youth incarceration;

(d)alternative youth justice models and frameworks, including:

(i)examples from other Australian jurisdictions, such as Tasmania; and

(ii)international best-practice models, including those in Scotland, England and Wales, and Scandinavian countries.

(e)the collection, use, and transparency of data, including:

(i)youth justice recidivism rates in New South Wales compared with other jurisdictions;

(ii)the cost of incarceration and the broader fiscal impact of the youth justice system;

(iii)the remand population, including data on sentenced versus unsentenced children; and

(iv)historical trends in funding for community-based diversion and rehabilitation.

(f)the experience of children with disability in youth detention, including:

(i)assessment practices and identification of disability;

(ii)access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS]; and

(iii)availability of coordinated, wraparound supports.

(g)the role of the Children's Court of New South Wales, including the effectiveness and consistency of pilot programs aimed at diversion and community engagement;

(h)governance and oversight mechanisms, including:

(i)the role and effectiveness of the Department of Communities and Justice in coordinating a whole‑of‑government response;

(ii)the adequacy of youth justice community offices, staffing, service models and public accountability; and

(iii)reports by oversight bodies including the Inspector of Custodial Services and relevant Royal Commissions.

(i)the long-term social and intergenerational impacts of youth justice involvement, including:

(i)pathways between youth detention and adult incarceration; and

(ii)impacts on families and communities.

(j)labour market and workforce considerations, including transitional and redeployment opportunities for affected staff in the event of service model reforms; and

(k)any other related matters.

(2)That, in undertaking its inquiry, the committee will:

(a)engage with Aboriginal communities, children and young people with lived experience, service providers, law enforcement, the judiciary, and other stakeholders; and

(b)identify legislative, policy and practice reforms required to reduce the number of children in contact with the youth justice system and to build safer, more resilient communities.

(3)That, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the standing orders, the committee consist of seven members comprising:

(a)three Government members;

(b)two Opposition members, one being Mrs MacDonald; and

(c)two crossbench members, one being Ms Higginson.

(4)That the chair of the committee be Mrs MacDonald and the deputy chair be Ms Higginson.

(5)That, unless the committee decides otherwise:

(a)all inquiries are to be advertised via social media, stakeholder emails and a media release distributed to all media outlets in New South Wales;

(b)submissions to inquiries are to be published, subject to the Committee Clerk checking for confidentiality and adverse mention and, where those issues arise, bringing them to the attention of the committee for consideration;

(c)attachments to submissions are to remain confidential;

(d)the chair's proposed witness list is to be circulated to provide members with an opportunity to amend the list, with the witness list agreed to by email, unless a member requests the chair to convene a meeting to resolve any disagreement;

(e)the sequence of questions to be asked at hearings alternate between opposition, crossbench and government members, in that order, with equal time allocated to each;

(f)transcripts of evidence taken at public hearings are to be published;

(g)supplementary questions are to be lodged with the Committee Clerk within two business days following the receipt of the hearing transcript, with witnesses requested to return answers to questions on notice and supplementary questions within 21 calendar days of the date on which questions are forwarded to the witness;

(h)answers to questions on notice and supplementary questions are to be published, subject to the Committee Clerk checking for confidentiality and adverse mention and, where those issues arise, bringing them to the attention of the committee for consideration; and

(i)media statements on behalf of the committee are to be made only by the chair.

I move this motion because right now too many people in New South Wales feel less safe, not more. They see stories of break and enter offences, car thefts and serious assaults involving teenagers. They see children as young as 10, 11 or 12 moving through our courts and they ask a very reasonable question: "Why isn't anything changing?" The uncomfortable truth is that our current youth justice system is neither tough enough nor smart enough to keep our communities safe or to change the lives of these children. As of June 2025 there were 234 young people in custody in New South Wales, which is a 34 per cent increase in just two years from June 2023. More than half of these young people are on remand, not yet sentenced. Almost one in four is detained for a break and enter offence and nearly 60 per cent of them are Aboriginal. Behind every one of those numbers is a victim, a family, a community, and a child whose life is heading down a very dark path.

The Inspector of Custodial Services has told us plainly that Youth Justice NSW is effectively operating six remand centres. Centre managers describe their role as providing crisis accommodation, not rehabilitation. Young people are coming into reception, spending an average of around nine days, and then going straight back out again. Nine days in a Youth Justice centre will not heal trauma. It will not fix school disengagement. It will not stabilise housing. It will not diagnose and treat disability or mental health challenges. It will not build a pathway into training or work. In many cases, it simply interrupts a chaotic life, exposes a child to other damaged young people and then returns them to exactly the same environment—and all of this comes at an enormous cost.

It costs around $2,814 per child per day to keep a young person in custody. Nationally, spending on youth detention has risen to over $1 billion dollars a year while violent youth offending has increased. We are spending more and still failing to keep the community safe. The numbers just do not add up. This is not a policy problem; it is a human problem. When I visit regional communities and speak with police, victims, parents and grandparents, I hear the same pain from different angles. Victims want to feel safe in their homes, their cars and their businesses. They want to know that the law means something. Families of young offenders, often doing their very best under difficult circumstances, are desperate for help before things spiral out of control. Aboriginal leaders tell us again and again that they are watching another generation of their children being taken into detention and they cannot accept that as the norm.

This select committee will be about listening to all of those voices and bringing the evidence together. The motion asks us to look at the underlying drivers of children's contact with the justice system: school disengagement and exclusion, out‑of‑home care, homelessness and housing instability, disability, mental health and alcohol and other drugs, family dysfunction, poverty and intergenerational trauma. The motion asks us to examine evidence‑based, community‑led responses that reduce offending and reoffending: diversionary programs and early intervention, alternatives to remand and custody, and practical supports for at‑risk children and their families, particularly in regional and remote areas.

In Spain, the Diagrama Foundation runs therapeutic youth justice centres that combine secure care with education, vocational training, psychological support and strong family engagement. They have achieved significantly lower reoffending rates at a fraction of the cost of traditional detention, while maintaining clear expectations and community safety. This is not about being soft on crime. It is about being effective on crime. Every offence prevented is one fewer victim. Every young person we turn away from a lifetime of offending is one fewer adult in our prisons and one more citizen contributing to their community. For the sake of community safety, for the sake of fiscal responsibility and, above all, for the sake of the children whose lives are at a crossroads, I ask members to support the motion.

The Hon. JOHN GRAHAM (Special Minister of State, Minister for Transport, Minister for the Arts, and Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy) (20:07): I thank the Hon. Aileen MacDonald for her remarks, for moving the motion and for the spirit in which she has brought this proposal to the House. I indicate the Government will support the motion with amendments, which the Government will shortly move. I thank the Hon. Aileen MacDonald for agreeing to those amendments. I can think of no better use of this House's committee system than to inquire into some of these important issues. I state for the record some of the Government's initiatives in youth justice. The Government is investing $105.3 million through this year's Youth Justice budget to produce a range of early intervention and diversion programs. The Government knows that investment in those diversion programs reduces youth crime. This funding previously was not provided into the future, which left many of the essential diversion programs on a fiscal cliff and faced with uncertainty. In the longer term, the Government absolutely wants to see fewer young people interacting with the criminal justice system.

Last week the Government announced a site has been secured for the Moree Bail Accommodation Program. Youth Justice is due to take possession next month. The $8.75 million investment includes a new accommodation facility and wraparound support services. The Minister for Youth Justice also announced last week the $5 million Community Safety Investment Fund, which is open to community and non-government organisations across New South Wales. The new grant program will back innovative and potentially scalable local initiatives that prevent or respond to youth offending, strengthen families and build safer, more cohesive communities. The fund recognises many communities need support, particularly in regional areas. Applications are now open for organisations. The Department of Communities and Justice will prioritise applications targeting areas with the highest demonstrated needs and service gaps.

The fund complements a range of existing programs Youth Justice NSW runs across the State. For example, the Government has expanded the Safe Aboriginal Youth program to four new locations—Coffs Harbour, Orange, Tamworth and Moree—and has also expanded the program in Dubbo. It works alongside other programs: Youth on Track, rural residential adolescent alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services and Keep on Track. There is certainly more that the Government can do, and it appreciates the guidance of the House in tackling that task.

Ms SUE HIGGINSON (20:10): The Greens support the establishment of the Select Committee into Youth Justice. We commend the Hon. Aileen MacDonald for her passionate and reasoned advocacy on the issue. Frankly, youth justice is in freefall. The current Government has abandoned Closing the Gap. It is locking up kids who are in year four and year five. It has extended horrific youth bail laws. This select committee presents a chance for the Parliament to probe the impacts of this Government's war on children and what the solutions are to the problems young people face. Data released in August by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research [BOCSAR] reveal the Minns Labor Government's bail laws are driving a crisis in youth detention, with the number of young people in custody surging by 34 per cent in just two years. As at June this year 234 young people were in detention, up from 175 in June 2023. More than 70 per cent of them were being held on remand. The figures also expose the ongoing over-incarceration of Aboriginal young people. As at June this year 140 Aboriginal children were in detention, making up almost 60 per cent of the youth prison population.

What Labor Premier Chris Minns is doing is not working, and I am certain that this committee will prove that. The Premier cannot feign ignorance because over 60 peak bodies and well over 500 legal experts told him that his youth bail laws would radically depart from youth justice and would make youth crime worse. I have repeatedly asked the Premier and the Attorney General for one review, one peer-reviewed study, one preliminary study that shows or one legal expert who believes the Government's youth bail laws have the effect of reducing youth crime, but there is not one. Five hundred experts told the Premier his lock-up-kids laws would make youth crime worse but not one expert has told him otherwise. I imagine this select committee will reveal that New South Wales does not have a government that is serious about youth justice or preventing youth crime, but rather a government that is serious about pleasing shock jocks.

The committee needs to probe the 12 per cent reduction in youth crime the Government has been crowing about because the BOCSAR statistics are clear that all the children who repeatedly offend have simply been thrown in prison. Of course crime will fall temporarily. However, that same temporary fall—as well as an enduring fall in youth crime—can also be accomplished by sending that child to a specialist diversionary program. The establishment of the committee is yet another opportunity to make a choice to listen to the experts and ensure youth justice. Or we could continue on the path of deliberately causing harm to children, who are, frankly, incapable of the evil that they are falling into. When kids are simply locked up, they get out and they commit another crime. When a child is sent to a diversionary program, they get support and they get better.

The Hon. CAMERON MURPHY (20:13): I speak in support of the motion to establish the Select Committee on Youth Justice. I thank the Hon. Aileen MacDonald for bringing it to the House. I know that she, like me, has a very deep and long-held commitment to youth justice and better outcomes in that area. I would like to move an amendment to the motion. I move:

That the question be amended by:

(1)Omitting paragraph (1) (g).

(2)In paragraph (1) (h) (i) omitting "the Department of Communities and Justice" and inserting instead "New South Wales government agencies".

(3)In paragraph 4 omitting "the Deputy Chair be Ms Higginson" and inserting instead "the Deputy Chair be Dr Kaine".

(4)Inserting after paragraph (5):

(6)That the committee report by 31 December 2026.

The State has to achieve better outcomes in juvenile justice. If we are ever going to close the gap, reduce recidivism and divert people away from becoming career criminals then we have to look at implementing alternative strategies. Other jurisdictions have strategies that work. There are lessons that we can learn from the important work that has occurred in other parts of Australia and overseas, which we can adopt and implement here in New South Wales and improve upon.

Recently the Sessional Committee Government Administration B of the Tasmanian Parliament's Legislative Council ran an inquiry into Tasmania's adult imprisonment and youth detention matters. Its final report, tabled on 2 April this year, looked in detail at some of the failings and issues relating to justice in that State, with a particular focus on juvenile justice, and suggested alternatives that would break the cycle. The New South Wales committee is also about finding the best practice solutions that will ultimately break the cycle of criminal behaviour and the involvement of juveniles in the criminal justice system. That is a goal that all members in this House should support. It is about significantly reducing recidivism, it is about successfully diverting children and adults away from the risk of being incarcerated and it is about strengthening the families and communities around them to make sure that they do not end up in that cycle of violence. Prison is criminogenic, which means that if someone goes to prison, the likelihood that they will go to back to prison and have a career path in crime is increased. The only way to change that is to use strategies that work. That is what this committee will examine and report back to this House on.

The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (20:17): In reply: I thank all members who made a contribution to debate: the Hon. John Graham, Ms Sue Higginson and the Hon. Cameron Murphy. I also acknowledge the Government for ultimately supporting the establishment of this committee and for engaging with the motion through amendments. While I would have preferred the original form of the motion, I will accept the amendments in the spirit of cooperation, because the most important thing is that this House now agrees to shine a proper light on youth justice in New South Wales.

The Minister often says at budget estimates hearings, in meetings and in public that he and I are on the same page when it comes to the children in our youth justice system. I say clearly that I am glad we are on the same page because if we genuinely share that commitment, then this select committee can be the vehicle for real change, not just more talk. What troubles me most is the churn through our youth justice centres. Young people are coming in and spending an average of nine days in what is effectively short-term remand, then going straight back out again. I note that the Government's amendment removes one paragraph of the motion and extends the reporting date. I would have preferred a tighter time frame, but I will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We now have terms of reference and a clear mandate from this House. My message is simple: Let's get on with it. Let us use this committee to move beyond slogans, test what actually works and deliver reforms that reduce reoffending and make our communities safer. As I said, the Minister says he and I are on the same page when it comes to the children. With the establishment of this committee, we now have the chance to prove that, not just in words, but in outcomes. I commend the motion to the House.

The ASSISTANT PRESIDENT (The Hon. Peter Primrose): The Hon. Aileen MacDonald has moved a motion, to which the Hon. Cameron Murphy has moved an amendment. The question is that the amendment be agreed to.

Amendment agreed to.

The ASSISTANT PRESIDENT (The Hon. Peter Primrose): The question now is that the motion as amended be agreed to.

Motion as amended agreed to.