Anglican Church to push jail age change

The Anglican Church will campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 in a bid to reduce the number of children in juvenile detention.

Anglican Primate Geoff Smith. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

The Anglican Church will campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 in a bid to reduce the number of children in juvenile detention.

Its top policymaking council, the General Synod, is set to empower Primate Geoff Smith to press federal, state and territory attorneys-general for the change as latest figures show nearly 500 mostly Indigenous children are in full-time custody.

The nation’s first law officers last November agreed to lift the age of responsibility to 12, but social justice advocates say this would do little to reduce the number behind bars.

The church’s National Aboriginal Bishop, Chris McLeod, said: “The stick hasn’t worked very well and it’s time for another approach.”

The generous support for his motion on Monday, the opening day of the conference, was in sharp contrast to the factional machinations taking place behind the scenes ahead of a showdown on the floor over same-sex marriage.

Church conservatives and progressives are at loggerheads and will put duelling resolutions up for debate on Tuesday.

This is the first time the 249 voting members of the General Synod have met since gay marriage was legalised in 2017.

At issue is whether priests should be allowed to bless or otherwise endorse the civil union of same-sex couples.

Adelaide-based Bishop McLeod said a similar motion to increase the age of criminal responsibility had been adopted by South Australian Anglicans last October and he was hopeful there was consensus for the national church to fall in line.

He insisted this was not being “soft” on youth crime, a growing problem for the community. “I have absolute sympathy for people who have been the victim of any … type of crime,” Bishop McLeod. “It’s not about letting anyone off.

“It’s about how best we can change the situation so that we can give young people themselves a chance.

“If they end up in juvenile detention and then in prison in later life we are not actually solving the problem, we are escalating the problem. The best place to learn to be a criminal is in prison.”

Research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identified 499 children under 14 in juvenile detention, of whom 105 were in NSW, it was reported last year. But raising the age of responsibility to 12 would reduce that number by only 43.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service has said 65 per cent of children accused or convicted of a crime are Indigenous.