Banksia Hill Detention Centre: Aboriginal youth discrimination, exploitation, and injustice in Western Australia

Banksia Hill Detention Centre has been at the forefront of human rights debates within Australia since its opening in 1997. Western Australia’s existing political majority and the constitution provide a challenging backdrop for actualised structural long-lasting reform to take place. This reserch paper problematises this issue by providing a socio-legal approach as to how and why various actors right these violations and laws. It is argued that legal and non legal actors have shifted towards utalising strategies of legal mobilisation in order to bring about social transformation. Through quantitive interviews and analysis of judgements conclusions were drawn on the recent success of lawyers being on this transition towards strategic litigation. However, while success can be identified within lawyers actions, contradictions can be found within the social movements which are yet to shift towards sustainable mobilisation of the law. As such this justaposition between the two exists demonstrating reasons as to why structural change is slow passed and takes beauractratic routes. Collective legal consciousness is needed to provided a space for these actors to work together to hold institutions accountable to the law.