09/07/2025

The Australian Lawyers Alliance strongly condemns the Liberal Party's call in this election campaign for bail law changes that would result in more young people being detained pending trial.

“These laws are a disaster,” said Greg Barns SC, spokesperson for the Australian Lawyers Alliance. “Detention of children is too often essentially state sanctioned child abuse. Furthermore, locking children up increases the risk of recidivism."

A better way to address youth crime would be the introduction of a stand-alone youth court in Tasmania which would result in youth offending and child safety being addressed more quickly and effectively.

“We welcome the proposal from Shadow Attorney-General Ella Haddad to introduce a youth court in Tasmania,” said Mr Barns SC. “We see significant delays across Tasmania’s justice system in both civil and criminal courts and tribunals. Not only will a specialist court help solve some of the delays we are currently experiencing but it would also address offending in a way that considers the developmental and social needs of young people in contact with the justice system and is more likely to actually reduce crime.

“We know the community is concerned about youth crime. We need to try alternate ways of addressing offending that avoids more children being incarcerated which is known to result in a higher chance of reoffending and the almost certain fact that children will ‘graduate’ into the adult correctional system.

“We can see from interstate and overseas examples that, when done well, specialist youth courts can reduce offending, support rehabilitation, and provide a pathway away from the justice system for young people.”

It is proposed that a stand-alone youth court in Tasmania would remove youth justice cases and child protection matters out of the regular Magistrates Court list and deal with them separately. The court would be furnished with the community workers and other support workers needed, to make a real change in young peoples’ lives.

“There is a better way to address youth crime and child safety and we need to try it in Tasmania,” said Mr Barns, SC. “It is critical that politics is not put ahead of the needs of vulnerable children in our state.”