George Newhouse at Senate Inquiry

National Justice Project addresses Senate Inquiry on Youth Justice

National Justice Project CEO Adjunct Professor George Newhouse told a Senate Inquiry of disturbing insights into the treatment of young people in detention and prison having spent decades fighting for improved conditions.

Speaking at the inquiry hearing into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, Professor Newhouse said the children who come in contact with the police, child protection services and the legal system are often our most vulnerable.

“If a child has the misfortune to be incarcerated, they have no effective protections, no effective advocates and they receive no care,” he said.

“In most states, it is my observation that there is no therapeutic treatment, no disability support, virtually no education in youth detention – just brutality and punishment.

Children in detention are treated as outcasts from society. They are systemically disbelieved, just as children in the care of religious orders were in the past.

“Instead of meeting their needs and supporting them and their families – First Nations children are disproportionally taken from their families and communities, and then criminalised and punished, often brutally,” he said.

Professor Newhouse spoke to the Senate Inquiry alongside Dr James Beaufils Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research on behalf of our joint submission.

  • Read Professor Newhouse’s opening statement here
  • Read our joint written submission here
  • Watch the appearance at the Senate Inquiry here

A report from the Senate Inquiry is due to be completed and released by 1 July 2025.

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