Amnesty International Petition – Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility

Ms WEBB (Nelson) – Mr President, I rise on adjournment to note briefly the petition I tabled this morning in this Chamber from Amnesty International Tasmania.  The petition was delivered at a rally held last week on Thursday 10 November on the lawns out the front of this parliament.  The petition is signed by over 4000 Tasmanians, calling on the Tasmanian Government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility in this state to 14 years.

As members will recall, a little over 12 months ago this Chamber resoundingly passed a motion making the same call on the Government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years, yet here we are 12 months later and these calls are only increasing in urgency as we see more evidence come to light about the terribly harmful impact of criminalising and incarcerating children.

Yesterday, on ABC radio, the National Children’s Commissioner was making a strong case for reform of the minimum age of criminal responsibility describing the incarceration of children as a national shame and this morning on local ABC radio our state Commissioner for Children and Young People reinforced that call and emphasised the urgency of the need for reform. 

Members may also have seen the Four Corners program on ABC TV last night which was a damming indictment of the incarceration of children in this country.  Our motion, passed in this place a year ago and the Amnesty petition tabled today from the people of Tasmania, stands as a clear call on the Rockliff Government to act more quickly, to do the right thing and progress this reform.

While it is admirable that the Government has announced it will raise the age of detention in Tasmania to 14 years by the end of 2024, all expert stakeholders identified that this does not go far enough.  Why would we aim for a lesser response to supporting the wellbeing of Tasmanian children?  Why would we not be aiming to deliver the best evidence-based compassionate response to children in our state.

Our current minimum age of criminal responsibility and detention in this state and the system of youth justice that sits around it, is discriminatory and is failing.  It is failing on every measure, first and foremost it is failing the children and young people who encounter it.  This is a gross failure of our collective responsibility to our children because not only are we locking up children, we are locking up children who are more likely to be suffering from trauma, more likely to have a disability and developmental delay, more likely to be suffering mental ill health, more likely to have been victims and witnesses of family violence, more likely to have had educational disadvantage, more likely to be experiencing drug and alcohol misuse and more likely to have been removed from their family by the state.

Our youth justice and detention system make all those things much worse and we are effectively criminalising disadvantage and we know that by doing so, we are entrenching poor outcomes for a lifetime.  That is a rock-solid guarantee.

We are not only failing children in this, we are failing our community.  Rather than make us safer, more cohesive and resilient, our current, ineffective youth justice system puts us more at risk and contributes to a community that is more divided.  When we look at the current minimum age of criminal responsibility and the youth justice system that sits around it, we can clearly see that it is not smart justice, it is not compassionate justice and it does not serve out community.

We are at an ideal time for positive change.  We have an opportunity to do better and we know what response is needed.  Wraparound support and care, secure stable housing, effective and sustained family support, proactive health and mental health care, educational engagement and support, love and acceptance.

Here in Tasmania we could, and should, be at the forefront of this reform.  The evidence supports it; the community wants it; and our children deserve it.

Mr President, it is time for action, now.

See more of Meg’s speeches on adjournment.