Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) First Nations children are over-represented in the youth justice system and the failure of state and territory governments to address the underlying causes of disadvantage is entrenching children in the criminal justice system,

  (ii) the age of criminal responsibility is currently 10 years of age around Australia meaning children as young as 10 are being charged, brought before courts, sentenced and imprisoned, and

  (iii) the United Nations has recommended that the age of criminal responsibility for all nations be increased to 14 and the minimum age at which a child could be placed in detention be raised to 16;

(b) welcomes Dujuan Hoosan and his family to Parliament House this week, who will be meeting with Parliamentarians and screening the documentary In myBlood it Runs that features his struggles to integrate his Indigenous culture with the western education system and his experiences in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) with the justice system;

(c) acknowledges Dujuan's courage, leadership and advocacy on behalf of First Nations children and his community; and

(d) calls on the Federal Government to urgently address the underlying causes of youth incarceration including systemic racism, intergenerational trauma and poverty, and to work with state and territory governments to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years, as a minimum.