Today marks the beginning of a week of action to bring awareness to raising the age of criminal responsibility in Australia.
If you’ve been following our Foundation’s journey from the Debate For Your State event to our previous blog, Doli Incapax – Raise the Age, you’ll understand this is a cause close to our hearts.
Next week, on 1 December, Federal, State and Territory Attorney-Generals are meeting to discuss the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
If you aren’t sure what that age is, currently in most of Australia it is 10.
10 year old children can be held criminally responsible for their actions and detained.
In one year, almost 600 children aged between 10 and 13 were held in detention across Australia and the conditions in which they are held can be traumatising.*
Our First Nations children are grossly over-represented in detention under the current law.
Investment in our children’s wellbeing brings far greater results than punitive actions and detention. Putting children in detention sets them at risk for injury, self-harm and a life of recividism and does not respond to the underlying causes of their behaviour which often are poverty and homelessness, abuse and neglect, mental illness and intellectual impairment.
In 2021-2022 there were just over 45,000 youth offenders proceeded against by police with 35% being children aged 10 to 14 years.^
Raising the age of criminal responsibility in Australia is supported by:
-
-
-
- Law Council of Australia
- Human Rights Law Centre
- Australian Medical Association
- Royal Australian College of Physicians
- Public Health Association of Australia
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
- Australian Indigenous Doctors Association
- Amnesty International
-
-
Please join us in supporting Raise the Age’s Week of Action campaign this week and contact the Federal and your State or Territory Attorney-Generals’ offices asking them to commit to raising the age to at least 14 years. Contact information is below.
Thank you for sharing in our commitment to create a better and brighter future for our children.
Federal - Mark Dreyfus MP, 02 6277 7300
ACT - Shane Rattenbury MP, (02) 6205 0005
NSW - Michael Daley MP, (02) 7225 6070
NT - Chansey Paech MP, (08) 8936 5688
QLD - Y’vette D’Ath MP, (07) 3719 7400
SA - Kyam Maher MLC, (08) 7322 7050
WA - John Quigley MLA, (08) 6552 6800
VIC - Jaclyn Syme MLC, (03) 8684 1111
TAS - Guy Barnett LLM, (03) 6165 7678
*Raise the Age
^Australian Bureau of Statistics
