National youth justice scorecard 2025
Our updated scorecard rates all eight Australian jurisdictions against children's rights standards in youth justice. The verdict: the system is failing children, and most states are sliding backwards.
Australia's youth justice systems are ineffective, discriminatory, and actively harmful — to children, young people and their communities. This report and its accompanying scorecard review governments' overwhelming focus on punishing children, highlight the harm this causes, and set out a roadmap for rights-respecting reform.
It's a practical resource for anyone working in policy, advocacy, communications, service delivery or government — and for anyone who wants a clear, evidence-based picture of where youth justice stands across the country. In it, you'll find:
- A jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction scorecard rating all eight states and territories against children's rights standards across eight areas of youth justice
- A two-year trend analysis showing how each jurisdiction has moved since our first scorecard in 2023 - including significant backsliding in Queensland, the NT, NSW, Victoria and South Australia
- A clear-eyed look at where the most pressing concerns are consistent across the country, and which jurisdictions are doing better
- Recommendations for the Federal Government to provide national leadershipm, including enforceable national youth justice standards and raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14
- Recommendations for state and territory governments to shift focus and investment towards prevention, early intervention and diversion
The scorecard provides an independent, evidence-based assessment of where each jurisdiction stands - drawing on publicly available legislation, policy and practice, combined with our own insights from delivering youth justice services with children and young people across Australia.
What we're calling for
Youth justice is an urgent child rights issue.
Many of the most pressing concerns are consistent across jurisdictions - and trending backwards. We're calling on the Federal Government to take a national leadership role and develop enforceable national standards for youth justice that fully reflect child rights and human rights requirements.
State and territory governments must also act urgently to bring their laws and practices into line with children's rights, shift investment towards prevention and early intervention, and raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14.
A rights-respecting approach addresses root causes, prevents contact with the system, supports children to get back on track - and ultimately makes communities safer.
