Last week Premier Rockliff and Minister Ellis were out in force declaring a youth justice crisis. They’re right, but not for the reasons they claim.

Yes, young people are struggling. Yes, we are seeing more complex and confronting cases in our communities. But while the Premier and Ministers stand in front of cameras talking about safety, what they’re not saying is this: the very programs that prevent harm before it happens are being quietly cut, underfunded, or left to fail.

There’s no better example of that than the Multisystemic Therapy (MST) program.

Announced just two years ago as a flagship response to the CAMHS Review, MST was designed to work intensively with young people at-risk of entering the justice system — those with complex needs, fractured family situations and mental health challenges that traditional services weren’t reaching. It’s not a tokenistic model. MST is backed by decades of international research. It works.

MST provides wraparound care. Clinicians go into the home, into the school, into the young persons’ world, addressing the real causes of harm and giving families the tools to change. It was exactly the kind of early intervention Tasmania needed more of.

Now? It’s gone — in the north, north-west and seemingly ‘on hold’ in Hobart— with no announcement, no accountability and no plan to revive it.

The Community and Public Sector Union has asked the Department of Health for months whether the program would continue. We were told a decision was ‘imminent’ two months ago.

So, while the Government says youth justice is a priority, their actions tell a different story. When the evidence-based, trauma-informed, intensive intervention model gets cut without a word, we should all ask: what is really going on?

It’s not just MST. Other vital programs and services are clinging on with insecure funding and exhausted staff. The system isn’t under pressure. It’s bleeding out.

At the heart of that crisis is the workforce.

The Tasmanian public sector is facing an unprecedented recruitment and retention problem. The people who hold up our essential services, like social workers, mental health clinicians, forensic specialists, legal practitioners, admin and intake staff are burning out, underpaid and increasingly walking away.

The Tasmanian Government struggles to recruit workers to critical roles because pay and conditions are inadequate. We need to bridge the gap to ensure public services are strong.

Services that keep our communities safe are strained.

In the Family Violence Counselling Support Service, both the Children’s and Adult Program data consistently shows the staffing don’t meet demand. Many roles have been vacant for far too long, which puts pressure on workers and means victim survivors aren’t getting the support they need.

Tas Police prosecutors are facing an immense workload. The result? Cases get delayed, victims are left waiting for justice, and the whole system slows to a crawl. DPP legal practitioners are in the same boat, whilst also carrying the burden of being exposed to harrowing details of serious indictable crimes.

Our courts are choked with backlogs, with court clerks and registry admin completely undervalued for their roles.

In Child Safety, staff are reporting trauma, excessive caseloads and broken systems. Young people in Out of Home Care are placed in motels and caravans because there is simply nowhere else to place them. We are failing them despite the painful truth that there is a pipeline of kids in care that end up in the youth justice system.

Student attendance hasn’t recovered from pre-Covid levels, a sure sign that kids are disengaging, and there are fewer supports to catch them before they fall. School social workers are increasingly taking on complex child safety matters because Child Safety is understaffed and drowning post Commission of Inquiry.

And through it all, we keep hearing the same story: the solution is more police.

Let’s be clear. Policing has a role to play in community safety. But police are not mental health workers, youth justice specialists, trauma informed experts, or diversional therapists.

Relying on policing as the default response to youth justice crisis is a failure of imagination and a betrayal of evidence.

You can’t arrest your way out of poverty, family breakdown or generational trauma. You can’t prosecute your way out of intergenerational disadvantage. But you can invest in services that work, like MST, wraparound education supports and community initiatives.

The Tasmanian Government maintains that it will close Ashley Youth Detention Centre – a promise now three and a half years old. However, they’re also alluding to ‘adult crime, adult time’ legislative changes that would rapidly increase the number of young people at AYDC.

Last week, Tas Police flooded Glenorchy after anonymous social media rumours. No crimes were reported… just fear — fuelled by Facebook and seized on by ministers to justify their narrative.

The Rockliff Government would rather run a scare campaign than fund the solutions our communities need. It’s easier to sound ‘tough’ on crime than be honest about what causes it. But what’s worse is that they know what works — and they choose not to fund it.

This isn’t a mystery. It’s a political decision.

Where is the transparency? If MST can vanish without a press release, what else is being quietly shelved behind the scenes? What other programs have gone while the Premier says everything is under control?

Instead, the Government has followed the Trump playbook — creating a so-called ‘Productivity and Efficiency Unit’ to review every government program. Meanwhile, there’s a job freeze on all ‘non-essential’ roles but they won’t tell us who is or isn’t essential.

We’ve already had review after review. Reports that end up gathering dust on a shelf, recommendations proposed by the experts and guided by lived experience, ignored.

The irony? It costs more to respond to crime and crisis than it does to prevent it. Locking up a child costs hundreds of thousands a year.

So, if the Premier is serious about youth crime and youth justice, he needs to stop the spin and start investing. Rebuild trust with workers. Work with unions. Work with communities. We stand ready to work with Government and all decisions makers.

Fund public services like they matter, because they do.

Jess Greene is the Lead Organiser at the Community and Public Sector Union and Deputy Mayor of West Tamar Council.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

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