Sydney, Oct 18 (FN Bureau) Children as young as 10 can soon be jailed once again in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), after the government there lowered the age of criminal responsibility, the media reports said. Australian states and territories have been under pressure to raise it, from 10 to 14, in line with other developed countries and UN advice, the BBC reports said. Last year the NT became the first jurisdiction to lift the threshold to 12 years old, but the new Country Liberal Party (CLP) government elected in August has said a reversal is necessary to reduce youth crime rates. It has argued that returning the age to 10 will ultimately protect children despite doctors, human rights organisations and Indigenous groups disputing that logic.
The NT already jails children at a rate 11 times higher than any other jurisdiction in the country, and almost all of them are Aboriginal. Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said: The government had been given a mandate after their landslide election victory, and that the change would allow courts to put young offenders through programmes designed to address the root causes of their crimes which, according to statistics, are most commonly break-in and assault offences. “We have this obligation to the child who has been let down in a number of ways, over a long period of time,” she told the parliament on Thursday. “And we have an obligation to the people who just want to be safe, people who don’t want to live in fear anymore.” As the NT parliament debated the bill this week, around 100 people gathered outside to protest, some carrying placards. One read, “10-year-olds still have baby teeth”. Another said, “What if it was your child?”.