Australia’s youth justice crisis needs national leadership. The Senate inquiry is helpful but isn’t enough

Motortion/Getty Images At a time when youth justice policy across Australia has taken an increasingly punitive turn , a federal Senate inquiry has laid out the evidence for a different path.

It stopped short, however, of recommending the range of reforms needed.

Released on Friday, the inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system has been almost two years in the making.

After the 2025 federal election interrupted the original inquiry, it was re-established in October 2025.

It examined: the impacts of youth incarceration the profound over-incarceration of First Nations children Australia’s compliance with children’s human rights, and the case for enforceable national minimum standards.

The committee received 350 submissions and held nine public hearings.

It heard from legal, health, education and youth justice experts, First Nations organisations, commissioners, researchers, advocates and front-line services.

Importantly, it also heard from young people with experiences of the youth justice system.

What the Senate inquiry found The findings paint a confronting picture of Australian youth justice systems.

It found the current approach is expensive, fails to adequately address the underlying causes of offending and is associated with high rates of re-offending.

Children who enter these systems are disproportionately experiencing significant disadvantage, trauma and unmet needs.

This includes poverty, family violence, child sexual abuse , homelessness, educational disengagement, mental ill health and disability.

Nationally, 65% of young people under youth justice supervision in 2022-23 had interacted with the child protection system during the previous decade.

Detention risks further compounding the conditions associated with offending.