Question - Ashley Youth Detention Centre - Geographic Breakdown of Detainees
- Mar 24
- 2 min read
Tuesday 24 March 2026
Ms ARMITAGE question to MINISTER for CHILDREN and YOUTH, Ms PALMER
[2.47 p.m.]
Mr President, and talofa lava to our guests and welcome. Very nice to see you here; it's unfortunate about the weather and hopefully you might have a chance to visit some other areas of the state while you're here.
Ms Rattray - I think that means north.
Ms Forrest - It means north‑west.
Ms ARMITAGE - Just other parts that might be a little sunnier and maybe not quite so wet, but certainly not foggy.
I have two questions. The first question is: can the minister please advise the number of residents at Ashley Youth Detention Centre on a weekly basis by geographic location, that is north, north‑west and south, for the previous six months?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the member for the question and welcome to our lovely guests here today. In answer to the question posed by the honourable member, first, I need to advise that to ensure that no child or young person in custodial youth detention can be identified, the Department for Education, Children and Young People withholds the release of data values under five. Therefore, some data values have been presented as an aggregated figure to maintain the confidentiality of children and young people. The number of young people in Ashley Youth Detention Centre can change daily, subject to admissions and discharges, and therefore the figures reported represent a daily average each week over the last six months. As part of this answer, I do seek leave to table a document and have it incorporated into Hansard.
Leave granted. Document tabled and incorporated (see Appendix 1, page x).
The document that I will be tabling outlines the average number of residents at Ashley Youth Detention Centre on a weekly basis by northern and southern geographic regions from September 2026 to the end of February 2026 - that's combining the north and the north‑west into the northern region, and then the southern region.
