Today a coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and youth justice organizations will reiterate calls for the Victorian government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 with the backing of 65,799 Victorian residents who have signed the petition to raise the age.
Youthlaw is part of a large coalition of organisations here in Victoria and nationally – all committed to and calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to at least 14 years of age.
Over the weekend you would have seen reports that Australia’s Attorneys-General have agreed to work on a proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old.
Youthlaw, in partnership with 17 other leading social services, health, legal and youth advocacy organisations from Smart Justice for Young People, have supported a collective response to the current Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System by the Legislative Council’s Legal and Social Issues Committee (the Inquiry)
Co-Convenors of the coalition Tiffany Overall and Anoushka Jeronimus gave evidence to a public hearing of the Inquiry this week.
As a group of community lawyers, we call on the Victorian Government to adopt a public health-based response that encourages COVID safe behaviour and compliance with the latest lockdown circuit breaker restrictions.
We believe a public health response should not heavily rely again on the use of fines during this circuit breaker lockdown.
