A Year Later: Reflecting on the ‘Help Way Earlier’ Report

On August 20, 2024, the ‘Help Way Earlier’ Report, released by the National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds, was tabled by Federal Parliament. This report provided a comprehensive update on the state of child justice systems in Australia and investigated areas for reform to ensure that children’s rights are protected. It notably insisted upon the importance of increasing the age of criminal responsibility and eliminating the use of solitary confinement against children in detention centres. 

The report centred the voices of children and their families affected by the criminal justice system, and emphasised the need to prevent contact of children with the criminal justice system. Anne Hollonds insisted that the long-standing “punitive approach” is “essentially criminalising some of the most vulnerable children” in our society. The report made several recommendations to Parliament, particularly surrounding the need for a national approach to child justice, as well as the role of community-based and child-specialised policy-making. There was also special mention of the particular disadvantage suffered by First Nations children, families and communities, who experience continued intergenerational trauma as a result of harmful youth justice practices. 

A year later, however, what has changed? How has Parliament responded to this report, if at all, and what remains to be done? 

In its pursuit of national reform, the report made specific recommendations towards this effort, namely the establishment of a National Taskforce and the appointment of a Ministerial Council for Child Wellbeing as well as a Cabinet Minister for Children, and the introduction of either a National Children’s Act or a Human Rights Act with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child incorporated into it.  

To date, none of these recommendations have been implemented. 

Since the release of this report, the extent of the Parliament’s response has been to refer the youth justice/incarceration system to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry. This Committee released an interim report earlier this year, providing an update of the evidence it had received. The recommendations of this Committee were frustratingly redundant; they merely recommended that the future Senate, given that an election stood in between the interim report and the reporting date for the inquiry, continue to pursue an inquiry into the issue, while acknowledging the extent of the evidence available.  

This result is plainly inadequate. Child justice reform should not be left hanging on a change of government to deem whether action into this issue is warranted.  

Another concern raised by this interim report is that only two states and territories, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, made submissions to the Committee. This demonstrates a lack of commitment by individual states that is fundamentally detrimental to the success of a national effort towards youth justice.  

In the last year, since the release of the ‘Help Way Earlier’ report, harmful practices towards children in the criminal justice system have only continued. In 2024, the Northern Territory announced that it was reintroducing the use of spit hoods, which had been one of the primary human rights concerns raised as a result of the Don Dale detention centre investigation. Queensland authorities also continued their use of watch houses to detain children, often in poor conditions and a lack of fresh air and natural light. This combination of inadequate responses from both federal and state and territory level shows a dangerous lack of effort from our governments to rectify harmful practices against children.  

It is imperative that governments commit to implementing the recommendations set out in the ‘Help Way Earlier’ Report, and contribute to a comprehensive national approach to ensure that children are protected across the country.