No half measures: Victoria urged to properly raise the age

For the Victorian government to truly by the “most progressive in the country”, a group of organisations say it must urgently raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, with no exceptions.

Just four days after a 13-year-old was denied bail and held in custody in a Victorian youth prison, Premier Daniel Andrews stood up in Parliament and claimed that no one aged under 14 was in custody in the state.

Under pressure to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria following an election victory, Andrews told Parliament in December last year that no-one aged under 14 years old was in jail in the state at the time.

“Late last week…we had less than 100 young people in the youth justice system…none of them are 10 years old - none,” Andrews told Parliament. “I am happy to try to get a further breakdown, but I do not believe any of them were 11 or 12 or 13 years old either.

“It is important to get on record that no young person as described in the question, is currently in our youth justice system.”

But it was revealed earlier this year that there was at least one 13-year-old in custody at that time. When the Premier made that claim, a 13-year-old boy referred to as “RN” was being held in custody after being refused bail. The boy had spent nearly 100 days in prison across the second half of last year, and was refused bail again in mid-January.

This was despite concerns that RN was at risk of early entrenchment in the criminal justice system, and that he has a moderate language disorder.

RN, whose parents are from South Sudan, is facing a “staggering number of offences”, and will now be dealt with through the state’s criminal justice system, rather than social support and welfare.

Around the same time that RN was denied bail, Andrews confirmed that he was willing to go it alone and raise the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria from 10 years old, if a national consensus was not reached through the Standing Council of Attorneys-General.

But he is yet to state whether this would involve raising the age to 12 or 14 years old, and if there will be exemptions for certain offences.

This has led to significant concerns that the Victorian government will not raise the age in line with a wealth of expert evidence and research.

A group of 60 Victorian Aboriginal, legal, health, faith, youth and human rights organisations have now written to the Victorian government urging it to act to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old, with no exceptions.

Signatories to the letter include the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), VACCHO and the Human Rights Law Centre.

“All the expert advice says that children under 14 years old do not have the capability to be criminally responsible and that prison only harms their development,” VALS CEO Nerita Waight says.

“We expect the Premier to listen to the expert advice. If the Victorian government keeps the age of criminal responsibility below 14 years old or creates exemptions for certain behaviours, then they have ignored the expert advice and chosen to play politics instead of doing what is right. They have committed to raising the age, now they must go the whole way to deliver it.”

VACCHO CEO Jill Gallagher called on the Victorian government to be “bold and brave and truly lead the way”, while HRLC acting managing lawyer Amala Ramarathinam says the state government has been “sitting idle” on advice from medical experts, parliamentary inquiries and the justice department.

“Anything less than 14, or with exceptions, will continue to be an abject failure by the Andrews government to uphold the human rights of children and young people in Victoria,” Ramarathinam says.

The nation’s Attorneys-General will meet at the end of April to discuss the issue. The group of 60 organisations said in the letter they will reject any proposal that will not see the age of criminal responsibility raised to 14 years old with no exceptions.

“Our coalition wishes to state in no uncertain terms that raising the age to only 12 and / or raising the age for some conduct but carving out other conduct as exemptions is completely inconsistent with medical evidence and will not be endorsed by our coalition,” the letter said.