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A former chief magistrate of the Northern Territory has criticised the widespread lack of expertise in the youth justice system in the state in evidence to the royal commission into youth detention.
Justice Hilary Hannam, who was a magistrate in Darwin for three years until she moved to become a judge on the Family Court in 2013, today gave evidence before the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
Justice Hannam said a widespread lack of expertise in youth justice resulted in situations where people without an interest or knowledge in the area were making decisions about the future of children.
"The reality is in all of the circuits, whoever was allocated did the youth justice work. In Katherine, of course, there's only one sitting magistrate, and if they weren't particularly interested or had any expertise in it, there was just no alternative."
But Justice Hannam also told the commission that, as chief magistrate, she organised and ran a series of education sessions directly focusing on youth issues and youth justice.
As well as a lack of expert knowledge, Justice Hannam said it was difficult to organise inter-agency responses or resourcing for youth justice because of the separate nature of the system.
"If I wanted to talk about court buildings I had to go to the CEO of Justice, if I wanted to talk about drug and alcohol treatment I had to speak to someone from [the health department]," she said. "If I wanted to speak to someone to do with children or child protection I had to speak to someone from [the] Department of Children and Families, if I wanted to speak to someone about diversion I had to speak to police."
Youth Justice Act reduced to a 'statement of good intentions'
In addition to a lack of expertise and a fragmented system, Justice Hannam said under-resourcing was her other major concern about the youth justice system.
When asked by counsel assisting Peter Morrissey SC about the efficacy of the Northern Territory's Youth Justice Act at engaging with young offenders, Justice Hannam said any failings were primarily due to underfunding.
"I think it's quite a good act, having had experience with acts in at least a couple of jurisdictions," she said.
"These sections were rendered a dead letter by the absence of funding," Mr Morrissey said.
"They were," Justice Hannam replied.
Non-attendance at school not seen as a red flag
Justice Hannam said that in some communities some risks, such as children not going to school, were so widespread that they had become normalised.
"There becomes the normalisation of the abnormal," she said. "I remember asking a child protection worker whether if a child did not attend school ... would that be seen as a child protection issue? He said no. I was staggered."
Justice Hannam said there was also a lack of understanding between the different agencies that dealt with the youth justice system about the importance of education to reducing reoffending.
"There didn't seem to be any recognition between say the justice system, the correction system, and the education system that this was all inter-related and that it was important," she said.
Justice Hannam said she had presided over cases where children had not attended school for years on some occasions.
By Georgia Hitch
8 May 2017
