Attorney-General Chansey Paech introduces ‘most significant’ justice reform agenda in NT history

A major shake-up of NT sentencing laws is in the works after Labor took the first step to repealing mandatory sentencing and raising the age of criminal responsibility. Vote in our poll here.

Controversial new justice laws were introduced into Northern Territory parliament on Thursday but there will be some time before the reforms are reality.

Among repeals to mandatory sentencing, the Labor government will move to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the Northern Territory from 10 to 12 years old.

If passed next month on the legislation’s second reading, the NT could be one of the first states or territories in Australia to do so.

The new laws would mean children under the age of 12 would not be charged with a crime in the NT, but instead offered intensive therapeutic programs and psychological assessments.

Ahead of Thursday’s sittings, Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the justice reforms were the most significant of its kind since the Territory’s self-governance.

“The evidence is clear, the earlier a child enters the justice system, the more likely they are to reoffend,” Mr Paech said.

“Punitive measures are not a deterrent for 10 and 11-year-olds. In fact, it is more likely to increase behavioural problems and reoffending.

“It’s time to get smarter on our youth justice approach and break the cycle of youth crime.

“We’re asking Territorians to come on a journey with us.

“We’ve heard loud and clear that the old system is not working.”

However, the CLP and NT Police Association have hit out at the move.

Braitling MLA and Opposition youth justice spokesman Josh Burgoyne said the change wouldn’t stop a single crime from happening and would take away consequences for young offenders.

“The current system leaves the determination with a judge but this takes the interaction young people have with our courts away and one more tool away from our police,” Mr Burgoyne said.

“We have a Fyles Labor government who don’t want consequences for young people’s actions, yet are failing to deliver the very programs that would keep them off the street.”

NTPA senior vice-president Lisa Bayliss said officers would still be called to crimes committed by 10 and 11-year-olds.

“There are already mechanisms in place to keep low-level, first and second-time offenders out of the courtroom – and diversion programs for youth offenders,” Ms Bayliss said.

“No one wants to see young people locked up but there is a community expectation that serious crimes are punished and victims protected.

“Let’s get early-intervention programs working first and if they are successful and making a difference to community safety, then government can consider raising the age.”

However Mr Paech said the reform was the “best chance” the Territory had to see real change.

“We’re 100 per cent confident this will address those issues that people are seeing out in the community,” he said.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and Attorney-General Chansey Paech have revealed details of legislative justice reforms they say is the "most significant" of its kind since the Territory's self-government. Picture: Annabel Bowles

“We’re also working with the Commonwealth on justice reinvestment that will, coupled with the investments that the Territory Labor government is making, and the legislative reform, see a reduction in the incarceration rates, see a reduction in reoffending and address the behaviours we’re seeing across the Territory.

“This is the most significant reform in the justice space since self-government in the Territory.”

Mr Paech said after the bill’s anticipated passing in November, the raise the age reform would come into effect in 2023.

He also said the government would review the legislation in two years’ time, which could include an assessment on further raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

The government said services and government agencies would expand their outreach programs for 10 and 11-year-olds and their parents over the coming months.

“We know that right now, across the Territory, and over the last five years, that one per cent of the population of young people in detention have been under the age of 12,” Mr Paech said.

“This is a small cohort of people but this is impact that is life lasting.”

He said the government was also increasing accommodation options for children who could not immediately be returned safely to their homes.

Mr Paech said police would continue to investigate and respond to the needs of victims.

‘Courageous leadership’: Services welcome the change

Northern Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins said legal, health and social services welcomed the change.

“In the Northern Territory, and at the time now it’s extremely brave,” Ms Atkins said.

“So we do congratulate this government, we congratulate them for listening to what Aboriginal people have been saying for decades.”

LR: Priscilla Atkins, Deborah Di Natale, Annemarie Lumsden and John Paterson at a media conference outside NT parliament after Labor announce its intention to raise the age of criminal responsibility. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Northern Territory Council of Social Services chief executive Deborah Di Natale said it was “courageous leadership” from the Attorney-General.

“I think what we are going to see nationwide is the justice system looking at the Northern Territory as a leader, what we will see over the next few years is an excellent therapeutic response to children who are 10 or 11,” Ms Di Natale said.

“I am very confident that the system we have now is not working.

“Of the children who end up in detention, 77 per cent of those reoffend within 12 months; that in and of itself by any objective measure will tell you that the current system does not work.”

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner welcomed the legislation, which fulfils a five-year-old commitment from the Don Dale Royal Commission.

Acting Commissioner Nicole Hucks said the Territory was leading the way on raising the age, which was an evidence-based approach to community safety.

She called for continued investment in place-based early supports for young people and their families, “which achieve far better results than the current detention system”.

Ms Hucks said the OCC would contribute to the review to potentially raise the age to 14 in two years time.

She said the OCC would be collating data mapping the outcomes of 10 and 11-year-olds diverted from jail, with the 12 and 13-year-olds still behind bars.

The Royal Commission recommended detention for children younger than 14 only in the most dire circumstances, after being convicted of a violent crime or if they posed a serious risk to the community.

But Ms Hucks said since the changes to the Youth Bail Act in May 2021 there had been a significant increase in children aged 12 to 14.

“We’re getting a lot younger children. So the under 14s have increased, particularly sibling groups being caught up in the youth detention centre system,” Ms Hucks said.

“There’s a 70 per cent recidivism rate among those children.

“So locking them up is not working, locking them up should be the last resort.”

Ms Hucks said she supported alternatives to detention, and called for timely responses for kids in need.

“For me, the issue is the referrals that go to those programs and the commencement dates that children are picked up by those services, because that is critical in terms of engagement.”

Youth Round Table 2022 chair Jahdai Vigona said it was time to start having serious conversations about youth justice.

“Young people don’t belong in a correctional facility as it does nothing to help rehabilitate them, it only adds to the trauma and neglect that they suffer from by being in that environment,” Mr Vigona said.

NT Legal Aid director Annmarie Lumsden said the legislation was a “watershed moment” for Australia.

“The experience of Legal Aid commissions representing children around Australia, is that they

are harmed by the criminal justice system,” Ms Lumsden said.

“We should be orienting away from costly criminal justice responses for children under 12, towards services that address children’s circumstances and help them grow and learn.”

But Ms Lumsden said even with the reforms, the Territory was below the international benchmark.

“The international community has already moved to raise the age and it is at least 14 in 86

countries,” she said.

The Change the Record chair Cheryl Axleby slammed the decision not to raise the age by a further two years.

“We are bitterly disappointed that the NT Government has thrown away another opportunity to get very young children out of police and prison cells, and support them in community where they belong,” Ms Axleby said.

"BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED"

“We are bitterly disappointed that the NT Government has thrown away another opportunity to #RaiseTheAge to 14 and get very young children out of police and prison cells, and support them in community where they belong." @AxCheryl 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/vHnqKVhiNM

— Change the Record (@Change_Record) October 12, 2022

She said the government had “chosen to kowtow” to law-and-order politics and police unions rather than listen to medical and child development experts.

The government will also push to repeal mandatory sentencing on charges of assault and breaches of domestic violence orders.

The amendments come just months after the Opposition proposed its own changes, which the government voted down.

The NT News understands among nearly 50 amendments to the Territory’s anti-discrimination laws is the repeal of section 37A, known as the religious education exemptions clause.

Traditionally the act has allowed faith-based organisations to exclude queer and gender diverse people from working in their schools, however Labor’s amendments would remove that right on the basis of discrimination.

Elected in 2016, Labor indicated it would raise the age after the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Children recommended the change.

On Wednesday, Territory Families data showed there was one child under the age of 12 in a Territory detention centre.