Fatima Payman (WA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

A 10-year-old cannot vote, cannot drive and cannot even work, yet they can be held criminally responsible and imprisoned. This is a total inconsistency in the way young people are held responsible for their actions. Last month, the Allan Labor government abandoned their promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility. At the then Andrews government's re-election in 2022, their key slogan was that they were 'doing what's right'. What is right about this? We are talking about a child who should be in the playground at recess, eating an LCM bar. Instead, the government wants to put them behind bars. As soon as that decision is made, as soon as that child is put into that system, they are placed in a cycle of self-destruction and dependency on the prison system. Life in prison becomes normal to them. Early intervention steering kids towards a productive, fulfilling life, not locking them up as soon as possible, is needed to keep these kids out of prison.

We know that this issue is especially salient for our First Nations communities. The National Indigenous Times reported last year that Indigenous children were as much as 29 times as likely to be imprisoned as non-Indigenous kids. Not everyone is suffering, however. Private, often foreign, prison operators, some listed on the New York Stock Exchange, are raking in almost $10 billion in annual revenue as the government helps them recruit more lifelong clients to boost their profits and deliver bigger dividends for their shareholders.

It's time the government took a decisive stand on whether they plan to do the right thing for our kids by raising the age or to continue to contribute to the destruction of lives and communities under current policies.

Question agreed to.