A NSW budget estimates hearing has revealed that nine 11-year-old children were remanded in custody within 12-months.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman told the hearing on Wednesday that one 11-year-old, 15 12-year-olds and 88 13-year-olds were convicted in the state in the 12-months leading to September 2021.
It was also disclosed that 74 children between 10 and 12 were charged but not convicted.
Department of Communities and Justice deputy secretary Paul McKnight told the hearing that between July 2020 and June 2021, nine 11-year-olds were admitted on remand to detention centres.
NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman. Source: AAP
That was along with seventy-two 12-year-olds and more than two hundred 13-year-olds.
“[Typically only] four or five nights a year is a 10-year-old in a youth detention centre in New South Wales," said Mr Speakman.
“The numbers who are detained are extremely low. Generally, they are there on remand, rather than having been sentenced—typically, none in a year."
When questioned by Greens MLC David Shoebridge on when the government will raise the age of criminal responsibility, Mr Speakman said there was “no decision in principle by the Government to raise the age or not to raise the age.”
Mr Speakman said the government was “going through” the model developed by the meetings of attorneys-general in November on raising the age to 12 and that he wants to explore a "harmonised approach" alongside state and territory counterparts.
New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Karly Warner called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14. Source: NITV News
'The evidence is clear'
Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited CEO Karly Warner said Mr Speakman has ignored the evidence that child detention has traumatic impacts.
“The evidence is clear: child imprisonment causes lifelong harm,” she said.
“The Attorney-General might seek to minimise the impact by saying most children only spent a few days detained on remand, but for kids as young as 10, even a day locked away from their family is devastating."
Youth Law Australia (YLA) Director, Matthew Keeley noted that of the 293 children, detained in custody on remand and between the age of 11 and 13, 54 per cent were Indigenous.
“The evidence is clear - children’s interactions with police and the criminal justice system itself breeds criminal behaviour," he said.
"These incarcerated children and their families, and others exposed at all stages of the justice system need more from this Government than punishment and failed policy.”
Cheryl Axleby, Co-Chair of Change the Record shared this sentiment, telling NITV News that a failure to raise the age was in conflict with the Closing the Gap agreement.
Cheryl Axelby co-chair of Change the Record Source: SBS
“So far we have seen no evidence the NSW Government is taking this responsibility, and the lives of our children, seriously,” she said.
“A prison is never the best place for a child to learn and grow — and yet that is exactly where they are sending Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids at terrible rates.”
