Despite the pleas of national experts, the Northern Territory chief minister remains resolute in her plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility.
Lia Finocchiaro has dismissed warnings her plan will result in 10-year-olds being jailed while promising to introduce legislation during the first session of the new NT parliament.
"Experts can be political commentators all they like, my job is to lead the Northern Territory," she told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"What I will say to the people who are creating a scare campaign over this issue is to be more responsible with the information."
Under the previously Labor government, the NT was the first jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility, in line with a recommendation by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT.
Ms Finocchiaro had opposed raising the age and announced in February, ahead of the August election, that she would reverse the legislation because raising the age meant young people "were falling through the cracks".
Since the Country Liberal Party was elected to power, a raft of legal, medical and social services experts have raised the alarm on its election promise.
Last week, the Royal Australasia College of Physicians published an open letter to the NT government, calling on the chief minister to "champion child health".
The college said it had "grave concerns" about her proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility.
Nitin Kapur, a member of the college's paediatrics and child health council, said it would worsen health and social outcomes for children in the NT, particularly Indigenous children.
"Children as young as 10 do not belong in prisons," Dr Kapur said.
"Children, especially those under 14 years of age, are still undergoing important physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development.
The evidence showed imprisonment during this critical stage of development was one of the most damaging experiences a child can have, Dr Kapur added.
"Following years of advocacy by the RACP and many other organisations, the NT took a vital step to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years," he noted.
On Monday, two Productivity Commission members, Natalie Siegle-Brown and Selwyn Button, said the government's planned reversal was "bad policy".
According to a Productivity Commission report for the 2022/23 financial year, the NT government spends more than $51.5 million each year on youth prisons.
In the two years following the children's royal commission recommendations, the number of young people entering detention dropped to as low as 24 per day, however since 2021 that number has more than doubled to 52 per day.
Ms Finocchiaro's landslide victory was predicated on her promises to deal with crime, and youth crime in particular.
She also vowed to reinstate spit hoods and introduce offences for breach of bail.
