Vic Greens Are Trying To Raise The Age Of Criminal Responsibility From 10 to 14-Years-Old
Victoria could become the second jurisdiction in the country to stop locking up 10-year-old kids.
The Greens have introduced a bill in Victorian Parliament to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14-years-old.
If the legislation is passed, Victoria would be the second jurisdiction in Australia to agree to raise the age to international standards.
The ACT’s Legislative Assembly voted to raise the age last year, but the final bill hasn’t actually been introduced yet.
The move in Victoria has been welcomed by Indigenous advocates who have been campaigning for years to keep young kids out of prison.
Cheryl Axleby, Co-Chair of the Change the Record campaign, told Junkee that the youth justice system was extremely damaging for young kids.
“Children as young as ten years old belong with their families, at school, in playgrounds and surrounded by love and support – not behind bars.”
Indigenous children are completely overrepresented in the justice system because of broad socioeconomic disadvantage and unequal treatment by police and court systems.
On any one night in Australia, around 50% of kids in youth detention will be Indigenous.
But that statistic varies from state to state — in 2018, 100% of kids in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory were Indigenous.
Indigenous kids also tend to enter the system younger than their non-Indigenous peers.
“The evidence is clear. The earlier a child has contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to re-offend. That’s why it’s in the child’s and the community’s interest for the Victorian Government to invest in therapeutic and culturally safe pathways to divert young people away from the criminal justice system,” Axleby said.
Australia has been called out repeatedly on an international stage for continuing to lock up 10-year-old children.
Earlier this year, Australia was slammed by 31 countries at a United Nations meeting for failing to fall in line with the recommendations put forward by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Council of state Attorneys-General met last July to discuss the issue and there was some optimism that it would result in a statement of support to raise the age, but it didn’t happen, and the discussion was deferred to this year.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said at the time that to raise the age of criminal responsibility, “you have to identify what is the alternative for children who would otherwise be subject to the criminal justice process.”
Greens Senator, Lidia Thorpe, told Junkee that there have been proposals on those alternatives from Indigenous communities for a long time, such as mental health care, rehabilitative programs, and social support.
“I just think that the government is not about preventative measures at all, it’s all about hard-line, “lock up everyone up”. It’s easier than having to talk to communities about solutions that they have,” Thorpe said.
Axleby said governments should focus on investing in culturally-safe pathways to divert Indigenous youth from getting in trouble with the law in the first place.
The Federal Government hasn’t taken a stance on the issue so far, leaving it up to the states and territories to work it out and Thorpe criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison for failing to lead the way.
“We know that if they raise the age around the country today that would see 600 children, predominantly Aboriginal children, released from prisons.”
“We need leadership, we need the Prime Minister to stop looking after his mates and start looking after the children in this country.”