David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Cox, move:

That the Senate—

(a) commends the Australian Capital Territory Government's commitment to raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14;

(b) notes with concern the ongoing abuse of the rights of children in juvenile detention centres across the country; and

(c) calls on the Federal Attorney-General to coordinate a binding national justice reform strategy that includes raising the age of criminal responsibility across all states and territories to 14, justice reinvestment and diversion.

This motion asks that the Senate, first of all, commend the ACT government's commitment to raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14. But it also seeks that the Senate note with concern the ongoing abuse of the rights of children in juvenile detention centres right across this country and call on the federal Attorney-General to coordinate a binding national justice reform strategy that includes raising the age of criminal responsibility across all states and territories to 14 as well as justice reinvestment and diversion. It's hard to imagine a more serious issue that has gripped this country than the crisis we've seen in juvenile detention centres, with thousands and thousands of children, tragically, so many of them First Nations children, being held in detention centres that are brutal, that are inhumane and that would seem to be designed to abuse their human rights. When jurisdictions like Queensland suspend their human rights act in order to keep First Nations kids in police watch houses, what should the federal government do? It shouldn't do what this government does, which is turn its face away from the issue, simply pretend it's a matter for Queensland to continue to flout international basic standards for the rights of the child and allow Queensland to continue to abuse hundreds and hundreds of kids.

If you want to be genuinely shocked, look at the appalling rise in the number of children kept in Queensland jails over the last decade. Ask yourself: should the federal government—should the federal Attorney-General—just avert their gaze and pretend that that's okay?

Of course he shouldn't, and of course the Commonwealth government should accept an obligation to step in and respect the rights of children not to be systemically abused like that.

If we cast our eyes—