Media Releases

A joint statement signed by over 100 health, legal, social, community services providers, advocates and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations today reiterated calls for Attorneys-General to stop jailing 10 year old children and raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old, with no exceptions.

The Allan Government’s new bail laws will not meet minimum human rights standards and will mean people, including children and young people, are still needlessly funnelled into prisons, according to the Human Rights Law Centre. 

Thousands of people will continue to be senselessly funnelled into Victoria’s prisons by the Andrews Government under deferred proposed changes to bail laws, according to the Human Rights Law Centre.

The Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes will today give evidence to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria, where she is expected to be questioned about the over imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  

60 Victorian organisations in the Aboriginal, legal, health, faith, youth and human rights sectors, including the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, VACCHO, Jesuit Social Services and Human Rights Law Centre, have in a joint letter called on Premier Daniel Andrews and Attorney-General Jacyln Symes to commit to raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, no younger, and with no exceptions. 

The Human Rights Law Centre will today call on the Andrews government to fast track critical reforms that would immediately reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing injustice at the hands of the criminal legal system, in evidence to be heard by the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, health, legal and human rights organisations today welcomed the release of a government report and called on Attorneys-General to immediately act on its recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility with no exceptions. 

The national Raise the Age alliance is calling for Attorneys-General to release a secret government report and immediately enact its recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are reiterating calls for a new independent body to investigate allegations of police misconduct in light of research that has found public trust in Victoria Police has hit a new low after countless scandals.

In the lead up to the 2022 Victorian state election, the Human Rights Law Centre this week launched its state election platform calling on all parties to end the state’s mass imprisonment crisis and create a fairer legal system for everyone.

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), with support from the Human Rights Law Centre, is taking part in the coronial inquest into the police-shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.

The Human Rights Law Centre stands in solidarity with the family of Kumanjayi Walker and the Yuendumu community today.

Peak national justice, child welfare and advocacy groups have joined calls for the Northern Territory Government to stop using spit hoods and restraints on children.

Today, the Andrews Government announced that the City of Yarra, Shepperton, Dandenong and Castlemaine will be the trial site locations where the public health response to public drunkenness will be tested.

The Raise the Age Coalition has condemned the decision of the Meeting of Attorneys-General to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to only 12 years old as inadequate and failing to improve the lives of children and young people.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling a proposal made at yesterday’s Meeting of Attorneys General (MAG) to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, an absolute missed opportunity to look after children.

The Andrews government should use the inquiry into Victoria’s criminal justice system as the catalyst to finally end mass imprisonment, the Human Rights Law Centre will argue in its evidence to the inquiry.

The Andrews Government must urgently reform its punitive bail laws if it is to meet the justice targets it signed on to in the new Closing the Gap Agreement last year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations have called on the Andrews government to take urgent steps to increase transparency and prevent mistreatment behind bars after a new report has highlighted serious weaknesses in disciplinary processes in Victorian prisons.

The Andrews government must take urgent steps to prevent mistreatment and reduce the number of people being funneled into prisons, the Human Rights Law Centre said today, after a new report uncovered serious and systemic wrongdoing in Victoria’s private and public prisons.

In an unusual move, 48 organisations have today publicly released their submissions to the Council of Attorneys-General working group on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 years old.

The Human Rights Law Centre has slammed punitive new laws passed by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory late last night.

The Human Rights Law Centre has today slammed punitive new laws set to be introduced by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory this week.

Children as young as ten in Tasmania can currently be arrested, strip searched and locked up in prison cells. This is out-of-step with medical evidence, human rights law and international standards, with the median age of criminal responsibility worldwide being 14 years old.

Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations wrote to the Acting Premier raising concerns about the ongoing use of 14 day quarantine in prisons.

New laws proposed by the Queensland Government will entrench children from marginalised backgrounds in the quick sand of the youth legal system.

Today, historic and long overdue public drunkenness reforms have passed the Victorian Parliament.

Today, reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness will be debated in the Victorian Parliament. Victoria is one of only two states in Australia yet to act on the recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 30 years ago to decriminalise public drunkenness.

The Andrews Government will today introduce long overdue reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness into the Victorian Parliament.

The Andrews Government has today released the Expert Reference Group’s (ERG’s) report on public drunkenness reform, which recommends decriminalising public drunkenness and the implementation of a public health response.

Two of Australia’s leading human rights organisations - the Human Rights Law Centre and Amnesty International Australia - are calling on the Gutwein Government to prohibit the routine strip searching of children. The Tasmanian Government is currently considering laws that the two national organisations say miss the mark when it comes to the need to protect children from harm and prohibit routine strip searches.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling on Premier Andrews to ensure greater police accountability following recent concerning incidents of police violence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will not prosecute two police officers involved in the death of proud Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, despite the Coroner referring the police officers involved in her death for criminal investigation, saying she believed “an indictable offence may have been committed”.

Today the Commonwealth Government is expected to release Closing the Gap justice targets to address the crisis of Aboriginal incarceration that would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples waiting until 2093 to reach parity with non-Indigenous Australians.

WA police will no longer have the power to lock up people who cannot pay their fines with the passing of the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Amendment Bill 2019.

Today Aboriginal and non-Indigenous legal, health and social justice organisations responded to Government claims that they were working on “ambitious” targets; and called for real and decisive action to end Blak deaths in custody.

Change the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre have welcomed today’s High Court decision confirming that the use of tear gas on children in Don Dale in 2014 was unlawful.

Change the Record calls on state, territory and Commonwealth governments to commit to end Aboriginal deaths in custody in the wake of George Floyd’s death in America - which followed two fatal police shootings here in Australia late last year.

While there are some promising developments in the Victorian Government's new Youth Justice Strategic Plan particularly the Strategy’s focus on early intervention, diversion, and restorative justice – the Strategy does not include a clear roadmap during the ten year period for keeping kids under 14 out of prison.

Today, the Coroner in the inquest into our mum’s death referred two police officers for criminal investigation. This isn’t the end of the road, but it is the beginning of justice for our mum. This is a historic day for Aboriginal people in this country, and a bitter-sweet day for our family. 

The Coroner investigating the death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, will hand down her findings on 9 April 2020. The findings will be delivered via video link, five months after the coronial inquest concluded, and over two years since Tanya’s death.

Chief law-makers in Australia must promote the rights of children with a commitment to raise the age at which children can be locked up, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Working Group tasked to consider the age of legal responsibility.

This week all Australian Attorneys-General will have a historic opportunity to promote the rights of children with a commitment to raise the age at which children can be locked up.

The children of Tanya Day – Belinda, Warren, Apryl and Kimberly – have been awarded the Tim McCoy Award for their outstanding achievement in advocacy of human rights and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.

Right now, across Australia, Aboriginal people are being killed by police.

We’d like to send our condolences to Kumanjayi Walker’s family. Just this weekend, Kumanjayi, a young 19 year old Aboriginal man, was shot and killed by police in his home.

Shocking stories of police brutally show the need for immediate action by the Andrews Government to provide Victoria’s police corruption watchdog (IBAC) the power and tools it needs to independently investigate serious police misconduct, so that police are not investigating their own.

Press Conference: The family of Tanya Day will read a statement and take questions from the media at 3:45pm today in Melbourne.

Newly obtained data shows that in one month, 403 strip searches were conducted on children at two youth prisons in NSW. Only one item – a ping pong ball – was found as a result of these strip searches.

The Queensland Government’s decision to move kids out of police watch houses “as soon as humanly possible” is welcomed, but the Human Rights Law Centre calls on the Government to publicly commit to a long-term solution so that no child is warehoused in a police watch house again.

Tonight’s Four Corners investigation, Inside the Watch House, raises serious questions about whether the Queensland Government is breaching its own laws by warehousing children in police cells designed for adults.

The Human Rights Law Centre will today provide a submission to a Northern Territory Parliamentary Committee supporting landmark reforms to youth justice laws, however arguing that the Government should follow through with its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility.  

Aboriginal and human rights organisations today welcomed the Australian Medical Association’s call for all states and territories to raise the age when children can be held criminally responsible to at least 14 years.

The second directions hearing in the coronial inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody will commence today.

The Supreme Court today overturned the sentence of a 12 year old Aboriginal boy caught up by Western Australia’s draconian mandatory sentencing laws.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released data last week that shows governments across Australia are now forcing more than 3,600 women into prisons. This marks an increase of 10 per cent from the previous year - more than double the rate of men’s, which increased by four per cent.

Australian governments must put in place life-saving Custody Notification Services in every state and territory to address one of the most significant human rights issues in Australia – the preventable deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Northern Territory Supreme Court has today held that the now repealed Alcohol Protection Order (APO) regime was valid and not in breach of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act.

Statistics released this week reveal the Gunner Government is sending more men and women to prison than ever before – a direct result of Chief Minister Gunner’s failure to repeal mandatory sentencing laws.

The Northern Territory today became the first government to commit to raising the age at which children can be charged and sent to prison. 

The closure of the NT's notorious Don Dale youth prison couldn’t come soon enough, but the Turnbull Government needs to help fund the creation of safe, home-like facilities built for children to replace it.

The Federal Government has completely failed to lead in its response to the Northern Territory Royal Commission’s report on how to fix failing youth justice and child protection systems.Shahleena Musk, a Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Federal Government was trying to wash its hands of responsibility at the very time it needed to show leadership to fix broken youth justice systems across Australia.

Adrianne Walters, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said that state and territory criminal justice systems are out of balance and that governments around Australia have a responsibility to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to stem the number of people being sent to prison.

The over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is a growing national crisis that is being overlooked by all levels of government in Australia, the Human Rights Law Centre and Change the Record said in a new report. HRLC's Adrianne Walters said, “The tragic and preventable death of Ms Dhu is a devastating example of what happens when the justice system fails Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

The tragic death of Ms Dhu could have been prevented, said the Western Australian State Coroner today. The Coroner found that many of the police officers entrusted with her care acted unprofessionally and treated Ms Dhu inhumanely.

MEDIA ALERT

Time: 8:45AM (AWST)
Date: Friday 16 December
Where: Steps of the Perth Central Law Courts, 501 Hay St, Perth WA 6000

The Western Australian State Coroner will hand down her findings in the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death in custody this Friday. She will also decide on whether to release harrowing footage showing Ms Dhu’s final hours.

The Supreme Court will today commence hearing the case against the Victorian Government to ensure no child is sent to Barwon maximum security adult jail. The Human Rights Law Centre and Fitzroy Legal Service are bringing the case after the government two weeks ago agreed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to the prison.

The Northern Territory’s broad police protective custody powers will be scrutinized tomorrow in the High Court in a challenge brought by the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and the Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of Aboriginal man, Anthony Prior. 

The Andrews Government has today taken the extraordinary step and agreed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to Barwon maximum security adult prison.

FURTHER DETAILS: As part of the last minute back down, the Victorian Government has committed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child to an adult jail. The only extremely limited possibility for transfers is in exceptional circumstances and, even then, only on the advice of the Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner that the transfer is in the best interests of that child.

Lawyers who visited children held at Barwon maximum security adult prison yesterday say that the conditions are cruel and intolerable.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) has filed a case in the Victorian Supreme Court challenging the lawfulness of the Government’s decision to send Aboriginal children as young as 16 years to Barwon maximum security adult prison.

Lawyers and advocates were today told that transfers of children from youth detention facilities to Victoria’s maximum-security adult prison are imminent.