Doctors have sounded the alarm on "heartbreaking" rates of Indigenous kids dying by suicide and being thrown behind bars.
The latest Closing the Gap report on bridging Indigenous disadvantage shows several targets are on track but adult incarceration rates, death by suicide and children in out-of-home care are getting worse.
Jacqueline Small from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians demanded an immediate response.
"There are heartbreakingly poor outcomes for children that must be addressed urgently to decrease incarceration rates and suicide rates," she said.
The medical organisation has also been pushing to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.
"More must be done to ensure children are not incarcerated for behaviours that are a direct consequence of their young age, their disability or their earlier trauma," Dr Small said.
The Northern Territory has introduced legislation to raise the age from 10 to 12. However, Dr Small said the medical evidence showed that was not enough.
Six years after a royal commission recommended the closing of a Darwin detention centre due to allegations of abuse, it remains open.
On Friday, Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Lidia Thorpe announced the party had given notice to move a bill to shut down Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, which houses mostly First Nations children.
Senator Thorpe said some of the youths in the detention centre "still have baby teeth".
The commission recommended the centre close following revelations of abuse, deprivation and punishment, including children being shackled to chairs.
The Closing the Gap report and concern over Don Dale coincide with renewed debate about an Indigenous voice to parliament.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has blasted the National Party's decision to oppose the voice.
"Trying to bind people to a position in a public vote I think is very strange," he told ABC radio.
"Right now, it's premature to say whether you fall for it or against it. I mean, you don't even know what it is."
Senator Bragg said he believed there would be a range of views in each party, including the Nationals.
