The advocacy group for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children, SNAICC, is calling for bi-partisan commitment to closing the gap ahead of the federal election. CEO of the peak body, Catherine Liddle, says Australia is facing a juvenile detention crisis and listening to grassroots voices is more urgent than ever.
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TVTranscript
00:00The number of children hitting our juvenile detention centres is higher than it's ever
00:07been, and there seems to be no end in sight to it.
00:10We know that the number of children hitting out-of-home care systems is also like a tidal
00:15wave, and what's frustrating about it is, to be perfectly honest, government has the
00:20ability to divert that tidal wave by pulling on all the levers that it actually owns already.
00:26Not throwing money at this, and not money throwing money at that, but rather leaning
00:30into community, listening to what they're saying, and going, okay, we're going to act.
00:34We are going to act on what it takes to make families strong, communities strong, and make
00:39sure everybody's safe.
00:40But that can only happen if all politicians say, look, we're going to put children first,
00:45because children should be above headlines, they should be above politics, they should
00:50be something that all leaders genuinely show what real leadership is.
00:55Step into the tough conversations, listen to what your communities are saying, and come
00:59together and go, you know what, we haven't heard much about children this election, we
01:03know we've got a problem, let's work together and let's get better results.
01:08Governments are like machinery, right?
01:09If you're not familiar to how that machinery works, they essentially have a framework that
01:15the states and territories can lean into.
01:18They have partnership agreements where the funding and levers sit in.
01:22They have the ability to genuinely step up, and as the federal leaders say, you know what,
01:28we've got to work different.
01:29Now, we know we've got the Closing the Gap Agreement, right, the National Agreement on
01:34Closing the Gap, which was developed in bipartisan support with every state and territory and
01:38the Commonwealth in recognition that unless we have a moment in time where we can all
01:43work together, when we can address those underlying drivers that we know we all need, we're never
01:50going to get anywhere.
01:51And now, why is it important when we talk about children?
01:54Because if you were investing in the environments that make strong families and strong children,
01:58all those other things start to disappear.
02:01But it can't happen if every time there's an election cycle, we go for a gut reaction,
02:06you know, a hot button reaction, and I'll describe what that might feel like.
02:11If you've ever been a victim of crime, it is a visceral reaction, and that is fair enough.
02:15That just means you're human, you're in pain, you're hurting, you're saying, what has this
02:20happened to me?
02:21It is very easy then for governments to pick up on that gut reaction and say, let's lock
02:25everybody up.
02:26That is a normal reaction.
02:28But what we really need to see is more emphasis on keeping you safe in the first place.
02:33How do you do that?
02:34You invest in the programs and you invest in the services that happen before you ever
02:40need any intervention like that.
02:42We also know, and all the evidence in the world, all the evidence in Australia shows
02:47that diversion works, intervention works, prevention is the best cure.