ANTAR provides commentary to the NSW Government on the Committee on Law and Safety’s Inquiry into community safety in regional and rural communities in NSW.
Truly healthy, safe and thriving communities are those that treat their young people with dignity and respect, including the provision of needs-based therapeutic and diversionary support systems for youth in trouble. In this sense, ANTAR objects to the framing of young people – particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people – as a threat to community safety and challenges the NSW Government to ask a different question: in what ways is society failing to provide youth with the support, services and opportunities they need to become healthy, safe and successful members of their communities, and how can we change this?
ANTAR argues that community safety in regional and rural NSW would be greatly enhanced by the NSW Government demonstrating leadership through evidence-based policymaking rather than politically motivated reforms in respect of addressing youth offending. We know what works, and it is not a law and order approach. In particular, it cannot be overstated the extent to which raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 is a crucial component of what must be a holistic, child-centred and community-based approach to addressing the needs of youth and communities.