Page 2366 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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We need leadership on this crucial issue, which is causing immense harm to the health, wellbeing and future of children. If diverted from the youth justice system, the needs of children under 14 can be addressed by appropriate services in youth homelessness, child protection and mental health. Providing early and alternative supports to children and their families is likely to have better outcomes for the individual, their family and the wider community than engagement with the criminal justice system. ACTCOSS is proud to be based in the only jurisdiction in Australia that has recognised that children simply do not belong in prison. We applaud the work done by the ACT Government and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury to progress this critical issue, and call on other jurisdictions to follow suit and take decisive, positive action.
I quote these two community leaders because the way the ACT Greens have historically developed policy in this space, and all spaces—and they will continue to do so—is always informed by evidence and the experts. I do not think Canberrans look to their politicians in all instances to be the authority on all things. Rather, we are entrusted with the responsibility of sourcing the right answers from those who know in the community and with implementing those policies and making them law. When so many leaders in our community who work with young people every day support this legislative reform, I encourage all Canberrans to heed their words.
I am particularly struck by some of the words of Dr Emma Campbell around national leadership. This is one example, in a long list of many examples, where the nation’s most progressive government is leading this country to policy and legislative reform that is long overdue, that protects the most vulnerable.
I am incredibly proud to be a member of a government that is willing to have difficult conversations, nuanced conversations, with our community; that is willing to engage them thoroughly and consistently throughout the process; and that is unafraid to be the first to do something that needs to get done. This is the most progressive government in the country. This is also a government that has had strong Greens influence in the cabinet for more than a decade. I do not think those two things are unrelated.
People all around the country who have been advocating for this law reform for a long time can see the virtue of progressive political parties working together to achieve strong legislative reform. Australians all around the country who support raising the age of criminal responsibility can consider how the ACT government has conducted these deliberations. They can consider the make-up of the government in coming to this position, and, if it is an issue that is impactful to them, perhaps reflect on that the next time they are asked to cast a ballot.
As the youngest member of this place, and somebody who has outed myself on a few occasions in this place as being a bit of a mischief-maker in my youth, perhaps my support for such a motion might be a bit self-indulgent. But throughout the course of my young life I have seen many instances where young people have been engaged in criminal activity where it became obvious, if you scratched just a bit below the surface, that that criminality could best be taken care of in a therapeutic environment—in an environment that protects and respects the young person’s liberty and starts from the basis that they are open to reform and open to changed behaviour.
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