Chief Minister responds to former NT, Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer’s support call to raise age of criminal responsibility

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has responded to growing calls for raising the criminal age of responsibility in the NT, saying he wanted “hard evidence” diversion programs work before laws change.

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FORMER NT and Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer has called for the NT government to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the Territory, saying there is “overwhelming evidence” in favour of the change.

It comes amid a national campaign for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 14.

Speaking on ABC Darwin this morning, Mr Palmer said he believed the age of criminal responsibility in the NT could be raised to as high as 14.

Former NT Police Commissioner Mick Palmer AO

“I think the evidence is overwhelming that there is little risk in increasing the age to 12, or even to 14,” he said.

“But certainly, it should be done incrementally.

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“(And) there needs to be ways to deal with the exceptional cases that occur from time to time, though they are very rare.

“I agree there’s a very strong case, particularly in the NT where there are so many of these children who have (fallen) foul of the legal system, to raise the age to 12.”

Mr Palmer’s comments come after he said last month the NT government needed to look at introducing preventive measures rather than locking children up if long term change in the Territory justice system was to occur.

In response to the latest calls, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the NT Government accepts the recommendation from the Royal Commission about raising the criminal age of responsibility to 12, but wanted to see hard evidence that diversion programs work before the laws change.

“They must have the programs in place first so that we can, with conference as a cabinet and as a government, know there is still a consequence there that helps that person who’s under 12,” Mr Gunner said.

“We absolutely accept the criminal responsibility argument. But as a government, you’ve got to make sure we’ve got those programs in place that help for the family the intervention for the 10 year old or the 11 year old.

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“We’ve done work in that space for the Back on Track program. I want to have that evidence come back that shows these programs are working, that we can move with confidence and match the law to the program.

“You have to have processes, steps, programs, interventions and people in place to do that change, and we’re doing that so I want to make sure that evidence backs it up now.”

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