Former children’s commissioner says NT has brought back spit hoods and restraint chairs for 10-year-olds

Australia’s former national children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, has delivered a blistering assessment of youth justice policies, telling a Senate inquiry that governments are ignoring evidence and reverting to “harsh, punitive policies” that lock children up.

She said that in the Northern Territory, children as young as 10 are still being restrained in spit hoods and that restraint chairs have been brought back. Hollonds, who served from 2020 to 2025, told the inquiry she had “witnessed things” she “can’t unsee” during her Help Way Earlier report into child justice in 2023–24.

She described seeing children held in solitary confinement and in concrete police watch house cells with no windows, natural light or fresh air, no outdoor space, recreation, rehabilitation or education, and no family visits — not just overnight, but for weeks and sometimes months.

Detailing a visit to a Northern Territory police watch house last year, Hollonds said that when she asked what staff did when children were in psychological distress, “I was told they use the restraint chair.” She noted the chair would be familiar from ABC footage involving Dylan Voller and said the territory had “brought back spit hoods and lowered the age of criminal responsibility back to 10,” as well as “brought back restraint chairs”.

“We are literally back to where we were prior to the Northern Territory royal commission which began in 2016,” she told the committee. Hollonds also criticised what she called the “handballing” of responsibility between federal, state and territory governments on children’s rights and wellbeing.

She called for the appointment of a federal minister for children and the establishment of a national taskforce to produce an evidence-based roadmap for better outcomes. “We need government accountability to act on the evidence,” she said. The inquiry heard her call for urgent, coordinated action across jurisdictions.

Hollonds said reforms should prioritise early support and evidence-based responses over punitive measures, with the national framework she proposed aimed at preventing further harm to children in custody.