23rd Jul 2019, 3:52 PM – Senate Motions - Law Enforcement - Raise the age of criminal responisibility

The majority voted against a motion introduced by WA Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that the age of criminal responsibility is currently set at 10 years old around Australia, meaning children as young as 10 are being charged, brought before courts, sentenced and imprisoned;

(b) acknowledges that:

(i) around 600 children below the age of 14 are locked up in youth detention centres each year and many hundreds more in adult prisons, and

(ii) the majority of these children are First Nations children;

(c) recognises that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recommends that the minimum age of criminal responsibility should be at least 12 years; and

(d) calls on state, territory and federal governments across Australia to work together to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years, as a minimum.