![The Legislative Assembly, where a bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility is being considered. Picture by Karleen Minney The Legislative Assembly, where a bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility is being considered. Picture by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/0e5a1c29-f3e3-44f5-88e8-0984e30d4899.jpg/r0_103_2907_1737_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A delay in lifting the age of criminal responsibility in the ACT will fail First Nations children, the head of the Aboriginal Legal Service has said.
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Karly Warner said Aboriginal children and families would be most harmed by the ACT government's delay in raising the age.
Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury on Tuesday introduced a bill to the Legislative Assembly that will raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 once it is passed and to 14 by July 1, 2025.
But the bill will include exceptions to keep the age at 12 for children charged with murder, sexual assault, intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm or committing an act of indecency.
Ms Warner said the ACT imprisoned Aboriginal children at 12 times the rate of non-Indigenous children.
"We have abundant evidence that locking up children causes ongoing harm for them and their families, and the whole community. The ACT government is well aware of this evidence. Politicians have no excuse to sacrifice 12- and 13-year-old children for political expediency," Ms Warner said.
Amala Ramarathinam, acting managing lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the delay in raising the age to 12 was a betrayal of children in the ACT.
"[Chief Minister] Andrew Barr's staged approach does nothing for the children growing up in prisons right now who need therapeutic support," Ms Ramarathinam said.
"Continuing to lock up 12- and 13-year-old children and raising the age with exceptions goes against all of medical evidence and expert advice from Aboriginal, legal and human rights organisations as well as the UN.
"Serious consideration should be given to amending the Bill. Anything less than 14, or with exceptions, is a failure by the Barr government to do the right thing by children and young people in the ACT."
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Amnesty International associate campaigner Kacey Teerman said the laws were a step in the right direction but did not go far enough.
"While it will have a significant impact on the lives of 10- and 11-year-olds in the ACT criminal justice system, it is not enough for all the other kids subjected to harm in youth detention," Ms Teerman said.
"If we agree that children cannot be held responsible for minor offences, we must agree that they are not criminally responsible for more serious offences," Dr Killen said.
"This decision goes against calls from the United Nations, medical and legal experts, the community sector and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations who have called for the minimum age of criminal responsibility to be at least 14 with no exceptions."
Justice Health Minister Emma Davidson on Monday said the issue of exceptions would be worth revisiting in the ACT once the systems are in place to allow the age to be raised to 14.
The Attorney-General, Mr Rattenbury, said he was not aware of any young people in the ACT having ever been charged with the offences on the list of exceptions.
The government has said it needs time to implement more support services and changes to the way young people are cared for after being accused of crimes before the minimum age of responsibility can be raised to 14. The changes include the introduction of an intensive therapeutic order.
The Australian Federal Police Association believes the two-year transition period to further increase the age of criminal responsibility to 14 would provide valuable data about children committing crimes in the ACT.
"This has been discussed for a while now, and much work remains to be done. We would especially like to see more detail about the new community-based intensive therapeutic order initiative, noting that it only applies to children convicted of an offence. What happens to children who repeatedly offend but can't be charged?" the association's president, Alex Caruana, said.
"There are currently limited alternate diversionary options for young offenders in the ACT. More resources and funding would be required from the ACT government to support police working with this new legislation."
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