Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney General Jaclyn Symes said the bill would ensure children aged 10 and 11 would not end up in the criminal justice system.
“Ten and eleven-year-olds don’t belong in the criminal justice system⦠they belong in schools,” Allan told media today.
It will bring Victoria in line with the Northern Territory and the ACT, which have both committed to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility above 10 years.
“The new laws mean stronger consequences for serious, high-risk and repeat offending, but they also enable earlier intervention and diversion for young lower-level offenders so they have a chance to turn their lives around,” Allan said.
The bill would also lower the age of prosecution for recruiting children into criminal activity from 21 to 18, which would close a “loophole” that allowed the recruitment of young people to commit crimes.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen some adults and young people exploiting young impressionable people, and using them to commit crimes under the presumption that they’ll face lesser consequences,” Symes said.
“And it’s easier to pay someone a couple of hundred bucks as a kid and get them to do your dirty work.
“We want to ensure that raising the age to 12 doesn’t create a situation where you are encouraged to recruit younger people to commit crimes.
“So the offence of recruitment of young people or enticing people to commit crimes currently exists, but you have to be 21 to be charged with that; we’re reducing that to 18.”
The state government will introduce the youth justice bill to Victorian Parliament today.
