National study into raising the age of criminal responsibility ‘stalled’, NSW Attorney-General says

A group of top legal officials who have decided to look at raising the age of criminal responsibility has not gotten much done over the past year.

A national push to raise the age of criminal responsibility has “stalled” over the past year, the NSW Attorney-General says.

NSW’s top legal official has teamed up with his counterparts in other states to debate raising the age at which children can be held criminally responsible for their actions.

Mark Speakman told parliament there hadn’t been much progress made over the past 12 months but denied the push had “failed” or been ”put in the too-hard basket”.

“I don't accept that it has failed, but I accept that it has stalled,” Mr Speakman told budget estimates on Monday.

In NSW, the limit is 10 years of age.

Mark Speakman acknowledged the process had stalled. Picture NCA NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Earlier this year, officials said there had been three children of that age who had been criminally charged, and one 11-year-old who was prosecuted for theft, in the previous calendar year.

Hundreds of children between the ages of 10 and 13 spent time behind bars, the majority of whom were Indigenous.

Australia is somewhat of a global outlier in treating such young children as capable of taking criminal responsibility for their actions.

Many countries have set the age limit closer to 14, and the UN has recommended a minimum age of 12.

Australia last year copped criticism by a group of 31 United Nations member states who said the country’s age of criminal responsibility should be no lower than 14.

Mr Speakman did not commit to any specific age, vowing instead to let the process with his counterparts to run its course.

“We are being proactive in the sense that we are facilitating a national process that will develop an alternative pathway,” he said.

“We don't intend to run our own parallel process.”