Karly Warner, Shahleena Musk, Eddie Cubillo and Antoinette Braybrook

In July last year, Four Corners broadcast an investigation into the mistreatment of children in Northern Territory youth detention centres. The report included appalling images of teenager Dylan Voller in a mechanical restraint chair at the Alice Springs Detention Centre. The images provided a snapshot of what has been well documented in past reports and the subject of longstanding advocacy by lawyers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups working in the sector.

The report was the catalyst for the calling of a Royal Commission to investigate serious allegations of mistreatment and abuse of children within the youth detention and child protection systems of the NT (now due to be handed down this November). Indigenous children account for more than half of all Australian children in juvenile detention; this is an issue that both reflects and further entrenches racial inequality.

At this discussion, our panelists explore the connection between over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and over-imprisonment of the Indigenous adult population. What are effective prevention and diversion strategies for young people – and what roles could NGOs, families and communities play?

Presented in partnership with Change the Record.

#YouthDetentionAu

When it comes to generational divides, unflattering stereotypes abound. Baby-boomers are Beatles-obsessed real-estate hogs; Gen Xers are vinyl-fetishing finger-waggers and millennials are entitled, smashed avocado-munching whiners. 

Highlighting generational differences is a great way for journalists to get clicks, but how accurately do these categories really describe us? And, for the so-called ‘millennials’, what are the real and perceived differences in choices, attitudes and behaviour from older generations? 

Emily Sexton hosts Clementine Ford, Kayla Rae Whitaker, Will Kostakis and Tom Taylor for a conversation that looks past the stereotypes to examine the changing nature of adulthood in Australia today.

Presented in partnership with Bendigo Writers Festival.

Tom Taylor, Will Kostakis, Kayla Rae Whitaker, Clementine Ford and Emily Sexton — Photo: Peter Weaving Photography

Remember that old Ford ad: ‘The average young Australian family has 2.3 children’? Today it seems quaint and dated; it probably seemed dated to a lot of people when it first aired back in the 1990s.

The traditional nuclear family – with two heterosexual parents and two or more children – is on the decline. Reduced birth rates, the rise of blended families, increasing numbers of same-sex parents and a growing Child-free by Choice movement mean our ideas around family are shifting.

Madeleine Morris, Chloe Shorten, Caroline Baum and Alyena Mohummadally

In this Question Time discussion, hosted by Madeleine Morris, our audience pose questions to three fascinating panellists, each with a different take on the notion of family in 2017. Chloe Shorten is a public affairs specialist, mother in a blended family with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the author of Take Heart: A Story of Modern Stepfamilies. Caroline Baum is a journalist and the author of Only, a literary memoir about being an only child. Alyena Mohummadally is a lawyer, primary teacher and queer activist raising two boys.

Are notions of ‘average’ and ‘ordinary’ oppressive and limiting when it comes to ideas around family? What, if anything, are we losing with the decline of the nuclear family? And, if it truly takes a village to raise a child, do we need to expand our ideas of family even further?