The Northern Territory has officially passed a law to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to ten years old, despite an outcry from Aboriginal, children's, legal and human rights advocates.
Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said lowering the age to ten would allow for early intervention.
"By lowering the age of criminal responsibility, we can intervene earlier in a young person's life and provide them the support they need to turn a new page, and start a better journey of skills training, including in our promised two new youth boot camps in Darwin and Alice Springs," she said.
People gathered outside NT Parliament House in Darwin on Monday to protest against the move to lower the age of criminal responsibility.
Sylvie, 10, dad Sam and Ada Wood, 10, protesting the Country Liberal Party's plan to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10. Source: AAP / (A)MANDA PARKINSON/AAPIMAGE
On an more than 90 per cent of children in the NT who are subject to supervision orders - either in the community or youth detention centres - are Indigenous.
National director at Change the Record and Anaiwan man Blake Cansdale said that the law traps children in the system and subjects them to trauma and harm.
“Locking up young children doesn’t make our communities safer," he said.
"Rather, it further entrenches cycles of disadvantage and intergenerational trauma, increasing the likelihood of recidivism and setting those vulnerable children on a path to adult incarceration."
Change the Record, a not for profit that advocates to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, is urging the government to invest in First Nations-led preventative and targeted early intervention support services for First Nations children.
“Change the Record has long called for all Australian state and territory governments to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, with no exceptions," Mr Cansdale said.
"The Northern Territory Government’s decision to lower the age to 10 is more than a step backwards ...
"It is an example of a government deliberately abandoning the most vulnerable children in our society, particularly First Nations children who are already disproportionately impacted by criminal laws that are discriminatory in effect."
First Nations justice director at the Human Rights Law Centre and Gunggari person Maggie Munn said it was "deeply shameful" that the CLP's first move in government was to lower the age of criminal responsibility.
“And ram through laws that will further criminalise First Nations communities and their children instead of providing the support and care they need," they said.
“Children should grow up in playgrounds and in our communities, not in prison cells.
"The Finocchiaro Government’s regressive laws will discriminate against First Nations People, put
children in jail and destroy families and communities.
“The Territory government must listen to experts across the Territory who have the solutions and the answers to the offending behaviour we’re seeing – communities know what works best for them.”
