ACT legislation to raise the age of criminal responsibility has stalled

Labor and the Greens are understood to be divided on when to introduce legislation and the form it will take.

Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said he had presented possible options of how the age could be raised to the territory's cabinet and said discussions were ongoing.

Mr Rattenbury said he had presented these options with Youth Justice Minister Emma Davidson. He did not mention Family and Community Services Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, who also worked on the legislation.

"The ACT government's commitment to raising the age of criminal responsibility is in the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement between the ACT Greens and Labor," he said.

"My Greens colleague Emma Davidson, Minister for Youth Justice, and I remain strongly committed to this reform and have presented a series options to ministerial colleagues. These are still the subject of detailed and ongoing discussions within government."

Mr Rattenbury did not answer questions around when legislation was expected. Last year, the Attorney-General indicated legislation to raise the age could be introduced in early 2022.

The Greens are pushing for the reform to be delivered as a matter of priority.

Ms Stephen-Smith said she was still committed to the reform and work was under way.

"I'm closely engaged in the policy work to progress this important reform, with a focus on ensuring that it genuinely delivers better outcomes for children, young people and the community," she said.

"That means thinking deeply about what the new system will look like for children and young people who engage in harmful behaviour that brings them to the attention of police, especially when that behaviour has serious consequences for other people."

But Ms Stephen-Smith also did not give a timeline for legislation, saying it was the responsibility of the Attorney-General. She did say substantial reforms would be needed to the Children and Young People Act.

When asked if the legislation was a priority for Labor she replied: "Yes."

A new report on the ACT's Bimberi Youth Justice Centre showed in the most recent quarter there were four people between 10-13 in the centre.

The Labor-Greens power-sharing agreement has committed to raising the age of criminal responsibility but it does not specify an age.

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The Greens want the age raised to 14. It is part of the party's policy platform. Ms Stephen-Smith has also previously been on the record as wanting the age to be raised to 14.

In the previous Assembly, Labor supported a motion put forward by Mr Rattenbury calling for the age to be raised to 14.

But other states are only considering raising the age to 12 following a meeting of attorneys-general last year where it was agreed to support the development of a proposal to increase the age.

Since that meeting there has been very little public movement on raising the age of criminal responsibility in the ACT. Mr Rattenbury said he would continue to pursue a raising of the age to 14 for the territory following the agreement from the states.

ACT Policing has also called for the age to be raised to 12, saying there was a group of 13- to 14-year-olds who were engaged in "serious an violent offending" and there were concerns the group would continue this behaviour without fears of repercussions.

A territory government-commissioned report, released last year, found sweeping reforms of the ACT's services system would be needed when the age of criminal responsibility is raised.

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