Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Youth crime is of course a matter that every single person in this chamber should be rightly concerned about. Certainly our government is very concerned about youth crime, very concerned about policing practice and very concerned about the laws which deal with youth crime and underlie prosecution for youth crime in our country, just as we're concerned with the detention of our young people in youth detention centres.

I fear that the member has not understood the discussion. I fear that the member has not understood the matter which she raised in her question about raising the age of criminal responsibility. The question of raising the age of criminal responsibility has been a matter of serious discussion—not a matter of serious discussion for many of those opposite but a matter of serious discussion in the criminal justice system. All Attorneys-General are concerned with this, and that's why the matter of raising the age of criminal responsibility was placed on the agenda of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General when I recreated the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, which had been abolished by the former government, upon us coming to government in May last year.

We will continue to discuss the question of raising the age of criminal responsibility. I note that some state and territory governments have already legislated to raise the age of criminal responsibility. Other state or territory governments have announced their intention to raise the age of criminal responsibility. Overwhelmingly this is a matter that concerns state and territory governments because overwhelmingly it is not—

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