Victoria will go it alone on raising the age of criminal responsibility if Australian states and territories cannot arrive at an agreement, Daniel Andrews has warned.
The Victorian premier has long flagged his state would seek a national consensus on lifting the age from 10 but has given his strongest hint yet the window was closing.
"Some people have been very focused on the age issue," Mr Andrews told reporters on Thursday.
"We're giving that one more go to try and get a national consensus and if we don't, as we said some time ago, we won't hesitate to do our own thing.
"We'd prefer not to do that. I think a national law would be better but at some point, you have to call time on national processes that just don't deliver."
National cabinet is scheduled to meet in late April but Mr Andrews wants to get the wheels turning before then.
"The attorney ... speaks with her colleagues quite often so it wouldn't necessarily have to be a formal meeting," he said.
Australian states and territories agreed to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 in 2021 but a draft report last year recommended raising the age from 10 to 14 without exception.
The Northern Territory and ACT governments have committed to raising the age to 12 and 14 respectively, while Tasmania plans to raise the minimum age of detention to 14 but keep criminal responsibility at 10.
Mr Andrews said Victoria intends to bring legislation before parliament in the "first half of the year" to reform youth justice, child protection and bail laws, subject to cabinet consideration.
The Andrews government had already confirmed it would loosen the state's tough bail laws after a coronial inquest into the death in custody of Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson in 2020.
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight said the Victorian government needed to lead the way by raising the age to at least 14 with no exceptions.
"They can't waste this opportunity by half doing the job," she said.
"Aboriginal people have disproportionately been impacted by the tough-on-crime politics of the last decade."
The Law Institute of Victoria welcomed the premier's comments but said any change to the age of criminality must be met with investment in early intervention measures.
"Other jurisdictions in Australia are already making progress on this issue and we welcome Victoria taking decisive leadership," institute president Tania Wolff said.
The Victorian Greens said a bill should raise the age to 14 rather than 12 in line with advice from medical, legal and human rights groups.
"If Australia's attorneys-general are going to continue to drop the ball on raising the age to 14, it's time for the premier to pick it up," the party's justice spokeswoman Katherine Copsey said.
No children between the ages of 10 and 12 were being held in Victoria's youth justice system as of late December but six 13-year-olds were in custody.
The office of Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes has been contacted for comment.
