Page 3325 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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Mr Barr: Tourism accommodation—
MS CHEYNE: Entertainment and hospitality—that group—for which there were another several hundred payments made.
Paper
Out-of-order petition
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Attorney-General, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Gaming and Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction) (3.18): I present the following out-of-order petition received by Minister Davidson, Minister Stephen-Smith and me, from 4,787 Canberrans, regarding the age of criminal responsibility:
Petition which does not conform with the standing orders—Raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14—Mr Rattenbury (4787 signatures), dated 21 September 2022.
I seek leave to make a few brief remarks.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: I am pleased to present today to the Assembly a petition received from the Raise the Age Alliance which has been signed by 4,787 Canberrans, calling for the government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years. I would like to thank the ACT Children and Young People Commissioner, Ms Griffiths-Cook, and Dr Justin Barker, who is the executive director of the Youth Coalition of the ACT, for presenting this petition to me and the other two ministers.
Raise the Age is a national campaign which is calling on all Australian governments to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility for children. This campaign has been joined by a range of organisations, including Amnesty International, the Law Council of Australia, the Human Rights Law Centre, Change the Record and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, just to name a few. There are many more organisations that have provided their support for this campaign advocating for a raised age of criminal responsibility for children.
The parliamentary and governing agreement for this term commits the government to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility. On 21 September this year, I, alongside the Minister for Families and Community Services and the Assistant Minister for Families and Community Services, announced that the government had agreed on how this would be achieved.
First, the age of criminal responsibility will be raised from 10 years old to 12 years old, removing 10- and 11-year-old children from the criminal justice system. Then, after a period of around two years to get our service system ready to respond to the more complex needs of 12- and 13-year-olds who might otherwise enter the criminal justice system, the age will be raised to 14 years. I expect that legislation will be
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