This month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Dr Albert Barume, began an official visit to Australia. He planned to tour youth detention centres in Darwin and Townsville. Both visits were scrapped after the Northern Territory and Queensland governments refused him access.
The NT Government says its prisons are already subject to independent oversight. It's the second time in a year the NT has turned UN inspectors away. Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland's office says the decision does not reflect the Albanese Government's position.
The question underneath this matters to everyone across the Top End and the Kimberley. On an average day in 2024–25, 94% of young people in NT detention were First Nations children, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. At Queensland's Cleveland centre, the figure was 90%.
Detention isn't working. Locking children up costs a great deal, and most come back. What does work, and what remote communities have shown for decades, is keeping young people connected to school, culture and Country.
The Barramundi School: what we saw first-hand
RPM consulted on, developed, designed and implemented the Barramundi School, a three-year juvenile justice diversion program in the North East Kimberley, funded by the Education Department of Western Australia. The program ran with the support of the local Miriwoong Gajerrong community, Juvenile Justice and the Department of Communities, as well as the Education Department, and the Department continued it for a further 13 years.
The young people who attended included 30 of the region's most persistent repeat offenders, and they turned up every day. While the program ran, offending among those young people dropped to zero.
The model was not complicated. It combined education that met young people where they were, on-country learning with Elders, and strong local Aboriginal leadership. Real accountability came from the community, not the court.
Why this matters now
Governments across the north are spending more on detention, while alternative education and diversion programs struggle for funding. The evidence from programs like the Barramundi School is that prevention costs less and works better, and it keeps families and communities together.
RPM has spent more than 25 years designing, implementing and reviewing youth strategies in remote Western Australia. The strategies we've built are still running today. We review youth programs for government and corporations for funding and audit purposes. We believe the next generation of youth justice policy in the north should be built on what has already been proven to work. Read more about our youth work