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Broken promises will destroy young lives (12 August 2024)
In April last year, Premier Jacinta Allan promised Victoria would raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old by 2027. This commitment was based on evidence that showed it would make the whole community safer in the long term. In abandoning her promise, it’s clear that the Premier has caved to the demands of a small number of critics, ignoring mounting evidence of the need to raise the age now and prevent the criminalisation of our children.
Over 30 years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended that governments implement community-based solutions to reduce the number of children in contact with the criminal justice system. Similar recommendations have been reiterated time and again by independent commissions, inquiries and reviews. The Victorian Government have been vocal about their commitments to Close the Gap and reduce the overincarceration of Aboriginal children but reticent when it comes to critical reforms.
The Aboriginal Justice Caucus has worked in partnership with Victorian governments for over 24 years to reduce the incarceration of Aboriginal people, prevent deaths in custody and advocate for community-based solutions. Despite decades of effort, the reality remains that the Victorian criminal ‘justice’ system does not work. It is not just. It is a racist system (as admitted by several Government Ministers in their statements to the Yoorrook Justice Commission). It is a system that perpetuates violence and harm and traumatises some of the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society.
We know children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved; when they can go to school, be with their family and sleep in their own bed each night. This backflip by the Victorian Government will mean young children will continue to be arrested, hauled before courts and locked away in prison cells.
The evidence is clear; locking up children doesn’t make our communities safer. In fact, it has been shown to have the opposite effect, setting many children on a path to further offending and involvement in the adult criminal justice system. Aboriginal children are disproportionately impacted by these laws. In going back on her promise, Premier Allan ensures that Victoria remains grossly out of step with international standards.
Aboriginal communities have long campaigned for the minimum age of criminal responsibility to be raised to at least 14 years old so that our children can grow up connected to family, community and culture, and access the supports they need to build a better life.
The Aboriginal Justice Caucus, along with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) have worked on the Youth Justice Bill with Government for over 5 years. It is truly shameful for the Government to gut a crucial reform from the Bill at the last minute and without any consultation.
This Victorian Government once lauded itself as the most progressive in the country. It can no longer claim to be progressive at all. With each community-driven reform that is ripped from the body of the Youth Justice Bill, we fear that the commitment at its very heart–to do what is right, and what is needed for our children–may be lost altogether.
We strongly urge the Victorian Government to honour their commitments and deliver on their promises.
Quotes Attributable to Aunty Marion Hansen and Chris Harrison, Co-chairs of the Aboriginal Justice Caucus:
“We trusted the Premier and this Government and have been betrayed by this devastating decision to abandon our children.”
“We spent hundreds of hours helping the Victorian Government develop the Youth Justice Bill. It’s devastating to see so little left after Jacinta Allan reneged on bail reforms for children and has now reneged on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.”
“It will be very hard for our communities to trust this Premier now that we know she won’t honour her commitments. So much has been said about closing the gaps for our mob, but so little of it is being done.”
“Once again realisation of Aboriginal Community calls for change are impeded by lack of political will, and fear-mongering critics blind to Aboriginal realities. It’s time to do what’s right for our kids, for all kids and raise the age of criminal responsibility.”
“To prevent criminalisation of children and their entry into the system, the government must urgently raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and invest in services and supports for children.”
“The Aboriginal Justice Caucus stands with other concerned groups in the community in calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14. Young children should be treated therapeutically as is the case in other countries, rather than through the criminal system.”