The Northern Territory is set to face significant changes to its criminal law following the massive victory of the Country Liberal Party which promised residents a crackdown on law and order. One of the biggest changes? Changing the legal age of criminal responsibility in the Territory back to 10 years old from 12 years old.
Currently, the age of criminal responsibility in the Northern Territory is 12 after it became the first Australian jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal liability from the minimum age of 10. This was put in place two years ago, following the widespread support of the Raise The Age campaign which pushes for governments to raise the age of criminal liability to a minimum of 14.
In the lead-up to the election, Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro promised constituents that she would tackle crime within the Territory and make it safer for all.
On Monday, Finocchiaro said the criminal liability changes are “so that young people can be held accountable and that appropriate consequences for their age are delivered”.
Finnochiaro is also promising to introduce truancy officers to keep an eye on kids regularly skipping school and hold parents accountable.
“It’s not just about dealing with young people or offenders once they’re already committing crimes,” she continued, adding that the Party intends to give police more rights to arrest young people.
“This is about making sure we give kids every opportunity in life to succeed, and that’s why our focus on getting kids to school is a very important part of our plan to reduce crime.”
One of her first moves will be to instigate bail reforms “designed to increase community safety by keeping violent and repeat offenders off our streets”.
“Our public service, and particularly our police and whole of government response to addressing law and order is something that must be started immediately,” she said during a press conference in Darwin.
However, many experts believe that lowering the age of responsibility is a bad idea.
Federal president of the Australian Medical Association, Professor Steve Robson told ABC News that the law change was “an outrage”.
“Incarcerating young children — and these are just young children in prison conditions in the Northern Territory — is frankly an outrage. It has an incredibly bad effect on their health, their mental health and their future. Young children should not be in prison.”
Catherine Liddle, the CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Straight advocacy group SNAICC – The National Voice For Our Children echoed his sentiments.
“No one is saying that no one should be accountable for their actions. What we’re saying is, what level of accountability do you hold when you’re aged 10 and you still have your baby teeth? Do you truly understand the impact of your actions?”
“At 10, you are just a child. The evidence had long shown, and again it was a royal commission that unearthed it in the Northern Territory, that the conditions in detention centres were absolutely inhumane.”
Earlier this month, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan came under fire for walking back on the promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria to 14 by 2027. Instead, Allan told the press that the new bill would lift the minimum age to 12.
Imprisoning a child under 14 has long been protested in Australia, mainly due to the high percentage of First Nations children incarcerated.
Raising the age of criminal responsibility was one of the 200 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in 2016, and many experts have said raising the age to 12 is only a step in the right direction and not enough to tip the scale into positive change.
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