Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I want to touch on two things under keeping children safe, both on the regressive, tough-on-crime rhetoric that we’re seeing coming from the government and also the family violence crisis that we have not only in this state but across the nation, and what that means for our children and young people.
As we see this government being tough on crime, as they call it, this is the complete opposite of what we need to be doing for young people. We should be diverting them away from the justice system to have proper reform in place and trauma-informed services that can assist them so that we’re not seeing recidivism in these young people and they’re not going to get caught up in the adult justice system as well, which evidence overwhelmingly shows will happen on the current trajectory we’re on. We’ve got enormous court backlogs at the moment, and that catches up for the whole justice system, but also for our young people.
An outstanding question we had from budget Estimates is how the proposed use of AI through our justice system is actually going to help improve that system. We haven’t got any details. We haven’t got a proper clear plan for young people or when it comes to children being held in watch houses, as Ms Rosol has pointed out to us already. We also haven’t got really clear plans in front of us as to how we’re going to fix the overwhelming amount of problems within our justice system as well.
Just yesterday there was a video posted on the union’s social media pages about cuts to DPFEM and the police service and what that would mean for those on the front desk who are on the frontline when people are appearing in a police station in devastating circumstances, reaching out for help, and whether those are going to be the jobs that are going to get cut. Imagine being a young person turning up and either not being able to be seen or in fact it’s the job of a uniformed police officer who could otherwise be doing something else who’s having to deal with those frontline services of people presenting in the station. We don’t have a plan. All we’re hearing about is devastating cuts right across the board.
That goes on even further when we are having children in watch houses, as Ms Rosol has spoken about. It is absolutely devastating to think that this would be happening in Tasmania in 2026. We’ve got concerns still over Ashley Youth Detention Centre. We’ve had concerns raised from the likes of the UN and questions around human rights violations across our justice system, and still there’s no clear plan of action to reverse all of this. There’s certainly no funding towards it because we’re getting cuts in police and throughout the justice system, or supposedly there’s some magic reform through AI although we haven’t even heard details on what it actually is. It’s absolutely shameful when we’re talking about new youth centres that are supposedly going to be held around different times of reform, that they’re going to have some kind of therapeutic assistance within them. Well, what exactly is it? And let’s be really clear, that’s not going to work if this system is burdened with a huge number of young people that are being sent there through the Liberal government’s tough on crime approach. It is completely regressive and the two things don’t coexist.
I also want to talk about the family violence crisis, because children are an enormous part of this. When we don’t have enough houses for victims to be able to be fleeing to in a timely manner in this state, it is so often women and children that either have to make the choice to be homeless or to stay in a violent relationship. It’s simply not good enough that we not only don’t have available housing for Tasmanians in that terrible situation to be going into, or the shelters, but so often when there is a house available and the people that are able to get access to it are, understandably, incredibly grateful, but so often they’re not fit for purpose for a whole family. We need houses that are going to be fit for purpose for a mother or a father and more than one child to be able to move into and go on living their life as best they can. We have to ensure that there are services appropriate for children who have suffered, who may be victims, to help them overcome, to provide them with the wrap-around services that they need for recovery. We haven’t seen the investment needed so that we can have these programs rolled out at the scale that is required in this crisis.
That means also having preventative services rolled out across all schools, not just some schools or those within a restricted budget that the services available can provide. We know the amazing programs that have been rolled out from the likes of SASS, Laurel House, Engender Equality are extraordinary, but they simply don’t have the resources available to them to be able to roll it out at the scale that’s needed right across the education system.
