Emily Lawrence – HSIE Teacher | Tutor | Acting Service Learning Coordinator

Reflection on the Night of Dangerous Discourse

Each year, the Social Action Va’ad put on a Night of Dangerous Discourse, or Conversations, or Ideas, or Debate. The aim of this evening is to hear a range of perspectives on a certain issue that is relevant in the contemporary socio-political climate. The Social Action Va’ad is a group of students with a strong interest in social action issues and raising awareness around the school of these. The Social Action Va’ad decided to title the event the Night of Dangerous Discourse, as they had chosen the issue of youth justice as their topic and thought that this was a topic better discussed, rather than debated.

A lot of effort was put into this by the Year 12 members of the Social Action Va’ad, and they are to be commended for how well the evening ran. Here is their reflection on this successful evening:

The Night of Dangerous Discourse every year has been a riveting evening filled with interesting, complex and eye-opening discussions. In saying this, we knew we had a lot of work cut out for us. Some of us in the Social Action Va’ad are Legal Studies students and were fascinated about the complexities in the operations of youth justice in Australia. The issues surrounding how youth justice is managed in our country is an issue that we believe doesn’t surface in societal discussions enough, and we wanted to learn more from the best of the best. Once we decided on our topic, we were very excited to search and pick our panellists, think of in-depth questions that allowed our excellent speakers to truly speak their hearts worth to our audience, and work out all of the nitty gritty details. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, and we think the event could not have gone better! The speakers were absolutely phenomenal and really enlightened us more than we thought possible. It was a very impressive evening, and we believe it was a great success. 

We had an amazing group of panellists come to speak at the event, whose areas of expertise covered a wide range of perspectives of the justice system. All of the speakers were insightful and knowledgeable in their areas and were able to teach us all so much about the issues and debates associated with the youth justice system.

The panellists were:

• Dr Garner Clancey, who is an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Sydney and has worked in criminal justice agencies such as Juvenile Justice NSW and the NSW Police Force. 
• Ron Frankham, who is the head of the Children’s Legal Service in NSW. 
• Robert Tickner AO, who is a former Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments who is serving as the chair of the Justice Reform Initiative Board, which believes there is an urgent need to reduce the number of people in Australian jails. 
• Michelle Cohen, who is the Principal Solicitor at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
• Damien Corbridge, who is a representative from the Community Restorative Centre. In his role as a senior Youth Transition Worker in the Pathways Home program he works with young people who have been in detention reintegrate into society.

There was a diverse range of opinions on the panel which gave way to some very insightful conversations about alternative approaches we can take to this issue. For example, there were somewhat conflicting views on the need for detention centres for young people. Whilst NSW is at its lowest rate of youth incarceration, there are still approximately 70 young people in youth justice centres on any given day. Some of the panellists suggested that this is unavoidable, however, there was also discussion surrounding the need to incorporate human rights into legislation to best protect vulnerable children. Ultimately, the panellists agreed on the need for a “therapeutic approach” to youth justice, which would address the root causes of youth offending such as drug and alcohol abuse and negative home environments.

Everyone that attended the evening left with incredible insight into the complexities of this topic given by speakers with years of experience and knowledge in the sphere of youth justice.

One of the key messages that we took away from the event was the importance of collaborating with communities affected by these issues, especially with Indigenous communities, in order for our government and society to create systems that adequately address the root causes of juvenile crime. An important aspect of this is the providing of resources to handle issues of the mental health and familial circumstances of many of these young people. While these are all issues that require actions beyond that which most of us can do, the event highlighted the importance of engaging with pertinent social issues and listening to the voices of experts or those affected directly by the issue. By Tess Endrey, Alix Cane, Ella Hart and Ashley Goldman, members of the Social Action Va’ad.