JOINT STATEMENT: Attorneys-General must commit to #RaiseTheAge to at least 14 at the December SCAG Meeting
Five years ago, Attorneys-General across Australia made a commitment to review the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Yet children as young as ten continue to grow up behind bars across Australia.
We are over 100 health, legal, social, community services providers, advocates and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations, from every state and territory in Australia. We echo the support of 200,000+ people in Australia for raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years of age.
We call on the Standing Council of Attorneys-General this Friday to stop playing politics with the lives of children, and urgently raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 with no exceptions.
This is the absolute bare minimum required to be in line with medical expert advice and international standards.
Evidence from brain development experts shows that criminalising the actions of children can cause serious long-term harm. Australia’s low age of criminal responsibility is a key driver of increased contact with police and the criminal legal system. It disproportionately impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children with disabilities.
We acknowledge that some progress has been made. The ACT has raised the age to 12 and will raise the age to 14 by 2025. The Northern Territory Government raised the age to 12 in August this year, and the Victorian Government has committed to raise the age to 12 in 2024.
But outside of the ACT, no other state or territory has committed to raising the age to 14 in law. This is not good enough.
Previously, a report prepared for SCAG in 2020 recommended that “the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments should raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years of age, without exception”.
Every day that the age of criminal responsibility is less than 14, is another day of Australian governments failing to take care of children. It is another day that children can be dragged through police stations, courts and locked up behind bars. This approach does not work. Communities have the solutions to keep children engaged and connected, and to keep communities safe.
Raising the age to only 12 and/or raising the age for some conduct, but carving out other conduct as exemptions, is inconsistent with health and medical evidence and will not be endorsed by our organisations.
We call on the Attorneys-General to raise the age to at least 14, for all children in Australia, so that every child can grow up healthy, happy and connected with their friends, families, and communities.
Signatories
Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement
Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited
Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia Limited
Act for Kids
African Centre for Law, Advocacy and Services
Amnesty International Australia
Amnesty QLD/NNSW Activism Leadership Committee
Anglicare Southern Queensland
ANTAR
Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
Australian Medical Association
Australian Training Works Group (ATW)
Basic Rights Queensland
Brisbane Youth Service
Catholic Social Services Victoria
Caxton Community Legal Centre
Centre for Innovative Justice
Centre for Multicultural Youth
Change the Record
Children’s Ground
Common Grace
Community Legal WA
Community Living Association Inc (Qld)
Community Restorative Centre NSW
Connected Self
Covenanting Committee with Uniting Aboriginal & Islander Christian Congress, SA Synod of Uniting Church
CREATE Foundation
Deadly Connections
Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation
Drummond Street Services
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE)
Fearless Towards Success (Qld)
Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria
First Peoples Disability Network
Fitzroy Legal Service
Hello Initiative
Hester Hornbrook Academy
Horse Whispering Youth Program
Human Rights Act for NSW
Human Rights Law Centre
Humanists Victoria
Illawarra Women's Health Centre
Inner Melbourne Community Legal Centre
Jesuit Social Services
Julian Trollor (Chair, Intellectual Disability Mental Health & Head, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry, Professor and NHMRC Leadership Fellow, UNSW Medicine & Health)
Just Reinvest NSW (JR NSW)
Justice Reform Initiative
Justice Reinvestment SA (JRSA)
knowmore
Law and Advocacy Centre for Women
Leichhardt Uniting Church
LELAN | SA Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network
Liberty Victoria
MANA Pasifika
Melbourne City Mission
Multicultural Australia
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATSILS)
National Justice Project
National Legal Aid
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA)
Northern Territory Council of Social Service
NSW Council of Social Service
Orygen
Picture Window
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
QPASTT (Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma)
Queensland Council of Social Service
Queensland Youth Connections - Natasha Lane
Queensland Youth Housing Coalition
Queensland Youth Policy Collective
Queensland Youth Services Inc.
Reconciliation Australia
Reconciliation NSW
Rights Advocacy Project
Rights Resource Network SA
RiverTracks
Robert Simms MLC (Greens SA)
SA Aboriginal Action group - SOSBLAK Australia
Save the Children and 54 reasons
Smart Justice For Young People
Social Reinvestment WA
South Australian Council of Social Service
The Australian Association for Flexible and Inclusive Education (AAFIE)
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (CFECFW)
The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE)
The Police Accountability Project
The Uniting Church Synod of NSW and the ACT
The Y Queensland
Uniting Church in Australia Queensland Synod
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
Uniting NSW.ACT
Uniting Vic.Tas
UnitingCare Australia
Vacro
VCOSS
Victoria Legal Aid
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS)
VMIAC
Western Australia for a Human Rights Act
WEstjustice
Windana Drug and Alcohol Recovery (including TaskForce, now part of Windana)
WMQ YHES House
Working Women Queensland
YFS Ltd
Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic)
Youth Empowered Towards Independence (YETI)
Youth Law Australia
Youth Support + Advocacy Service
Youthlaw