Thread by @SophieTrevitt

I know everyone's fixated on Parliament House, and fair enough some horrific stuff is going down, but right now the Northern Territory Government is announcing reforms that will see the number of Aboriginal children thrown into prison cells SKY ROCKET. newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/3…

These reforms are so regressive and harmful. They fly in the face of the Royal Commission, and will only drive more children into police and prison cells (and if you think conditions have improved in youth detention since the Royal Commission, my experience is that they have not)

There are 43 times the number of Aboriginal children locked up behind bars in the NT than non-Indigenous children. When I was a lawyer in Alice, there were ZERO non-Indigenous kids behind bars. Now the NTG wants to build new prisons to fill with more of kids - it is disgraceful.

We have heard a lot about the presumption of innocence until proven guilty recently, but that seems to fly out the window when it comes to Aboriginal children. Denying children bail & allowing police to slap a GPS tracker on a child before they've even gone to Court is outrageous

The proposed changes include restricting a judge’s ability to place a child on diversion to keep them out of the criminal justice system. This the same mentality as mandatory sentencing - politicians thinking they know better than judges & will just drive kids into the system

Every single report and Royal Commission says the same thing: kids need programs that keep them connected to their families, and their culture, strengthen young people, their sense of identity and purpose in the community.

NOT this. /end

@AmyRemeikis