The Northern Territory will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce legislation raising the age of criminal responsibility, which the government intends to lift from 10 to 12 years old.
It has also unveiled plans to change some controversial mandatory sentencing policies for adult offenders.
Attorney-General Chansey Paech will today introduce legislation to parliament as part of a long-running national push to reduce the number of young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system.
The change still falls short of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child's recommendation of a minimum age of responsibility of 14 years old.
However, the move has been called a "watershed moment" by peak bodies representing the territory's legal, community services and Indigenous organisations.
In a statement, Mr Paech said the "evidence was clear" that putting 10 and 11 year olds in contact with the justice system did not deter further reoffending.
"In fact, it is more likely to increase behavioural problems and offending," he said.
The government said NT Police and the Territory Families department would instead refer children aged under 12 and their families to "intensive parenting programs", and various schemes and family support services would be expanded.
The legislation will be introduced today and then debated in parliament in November, where it is expected to pass.
However, it will have a delayed commencement to buy the government more time to work with stakeholder groups.
Mr Paech today said he expected the change to commence in 2023.
Territory Labor had previously committed to raising the age by the end of the government's current term in 2024.
It is unclear if the party will meet another related recommendation of the youth detention Royal Commission, which would stop children under the age of 14 entering detention unless they've been convicted of a serious and violent crime.
Mandatory sentencing curtailed
The government will also introduce reforms to pare back the use of mandatory sentencing in another piece of legislation expected to be tabled by Mr Paech today.
Mandatory sentencing compels judges to give offenders a term of imprisonment for certain crimes and enforces mandatory minimum non-parole periods.
There have been calls to dump the policy amid overcrowding in the Northern Territory's corrections system, with a report by the NT Law Reform Committee last year recommending parliament repeal or reform it.
If the changes pass parliament, mandatory sentencing will remain in place for murder, sexual offences and assaulting police and emergency workers.
But for other offences currently subject to mandatory sentencing, judges will have the option to give offenders two forms of correction orders:
- An enforced correction order which would compel offenders to community work and various government programs
- An enforced intensive correction order, a custodial undertaking for more serious offending, which will include "mandatory intensive supervision, curfews, electronic monitoring" and participation in government behaviour and training programs.
"The message we are sending today is that the revolving prison door stops here," Mr Paech said.
He said the government would begin designing new programs based off "evidence-based approaches" in coming months, in a bid to curtail reoffending.
Raising the age a 'watershed moment'
The reforms have been welcomed by organisations working with Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory, who collectively said the reforms would help reduce the high rates of incarceration among First Nations people.
"It's something that Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, and all of our legal services Aboriginal organisations have really been fighting for for a long time," APO NT chief executive Priscilla Atkins said.
"In the Northern Territory, and at the time now, it's extremely brave," she said.
NT Legal Aid chief executive Annmarie Lumsden described raising the age as a "watershed moment" and "incredibly significant".
But Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory chief executive John Paterson said he would still like to see the government raise the age to 14, in line with the UN's recommendation.
"Let's have a due, proper, open, transparent process here, and have the appropriate political leadership that can lead this and come up with good, positive solutions to address this nationwide issue," he said.
