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