Northern Territory passes legislation to lower criminal age of responsibility to ten-years-old

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child says the Northern Territory has breached Australia’s international human rights obligations by lowering its age of criminal responsibility.

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00:00After a full day's debate, the government last night used its majority to enact a key

00:08election promise to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old, drawing a

00:14sharp response from the chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

00:19Ten is really very low in world terms. It is quite shocking.

00:26The UN chair is now writing to the Prime Minister advising him that Australia is contravening

00:31its international obligations on the rights of children.

00:35What is particularly concerning is that once a state has committed itself and has actually

00:39set a minimum age, this idea of going back is what is, I would say, in contravention

00:47of the convention.

00:48Despite the ABC contacting the Prime Minister's office multiple times today, he didn't respond

00:54to requests for comments before deadline. The NT government says it plans to build

00:58diversionary boot camps as a sentencing option, but wouldn't say how or when they'd be delivered.

01:04The NT has by far Australia's highest rates of youth detention, and Indigenous children

01:10continue to make up the vast majority of those inside.

01:14While 10 is the minimum age children can be sent to jail in most of Australia, the previous

01:20NT Labor government raised the age to 12, and Tasmania and Victoria have committed to

01:25raising it.

01:26The fact that this law has been passed in the Northern Territory last night is evidence

01:32of the failure of all the other systems that should have helped these children and their

01:37families much, much earlier.

01:39I think it's really reducing our credit on an international stage, because when we know

01:43good laws are based on good evidence and good consultation, we're going to see better results

01:49for the Northern Territory.

01:50Outside a Darwin primary school, parents have mixed views on the change.

01:55Children need a bit of guidance sometimes, and I think lowering the age of criminal responsibility

02:00is not just about locking kids up, it's about getting the support they need.

02:04I don't see that as an option at all. If that is a law that is implemented, I would seriously

02:10consider going back to Europe, where I'm from.

02:13And it's interesting, because governments usually get criticised for failing to deliver,

02:17and our government is the opposite. We are being criticised for delivering on our commitments

02:23that we took to the election.

02:24With the laws now passed, the focus is on the impact.

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