In the face of stark warnings from health and legal experts, the Northern Territory government is preparing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to ten years old. At a time of heightened community concern about youth crime around Australia, some believe hardening the laws is only going to make the matter worse.
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00:00Do this for my people, never change on, like they don't know the place where we came from,
00:06but I still shine, dark clouds with a rainstorm, I'm traumatised, I don't think that the pain's
00:10gone.
00:11As a child, Levi Nikoloff ran the gauntlet, trying to avoid the Northern Territory's criminal
00:16justice system.
00:17Growing up, we was around a lot of violence, you know, a lot of drugs, unstable household.
00:27Now 21, the up-and-coming musician, Young Miller, has set himself straight, but watches
00:32on as a new generation of Aboriginal kids, including his fans, walk into a life up against
00:39the law.
00:40Putting them behind bars, it's not going to help them, it's going to scar them.
00:46A new Northern Territory government, elected with a mission to drive down crime rates,
00:51has promised to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 from 12.
00:56These are young children we're talking about, these are not hardened criminals.
01:04Child health experts across Australia, left dismayed by the country Liberal Party's pledge
01:09to criminalise children whose brains are far from fully developed.
01:14The further the penetration into the youth justice system, the greater the risks for
01:19young people, as we experience in terms of deaths in custody, for example.
01:25The plan to lower the age didn't come from nowhere.
01:28So we got a lot of graffiti, broken property, we've had to put up fencing, our customers
01:34are quite intimidated to come to this area.
01:37The CLP's move comes two years after the previous NT Labor government raised the age to 12,
01:44the first jurisdiction in Australia to do so.
01:47The median age of criminal responsibility around the world is actually 14, and so Australia
01:53is really out of step with international law and best practice.
01:56Against the warnings from health, justice and Aboriginal groups, the CLP's confirmed
02:01it will fulfil its election promise and flip the age back this year.
02:06In a statement, Chief Minister Leah Finocchiaro said this is about intervening early to help
02:12turn children's lives around, so they do not fall into a life of crime.
02:17So far, just the NT and ACT have raised the age to 12 from 10, with only Victoria and
02:23Tasmania giving timelines on when they will do so as well.
02:28As the NT prepares to return it to 10, and in the face of growing community angst over
02:33youth crime, advocates are concerned other states may abandon the idea of raising the
02:38age altogether.
02:39We're setting these people onto a trajectory of either further crime or disengagement from
02:45society.
02:46For these kids to be hearing political people talking about them in a bad sort of light,
02:51that's not going to help them either, that's going to give them more rage.
02:54I've been on the grind, never had no money so I'm trying to make mine.
02:58Raising a voice for a part of society not old enough to have a voice of their own.