The IEU is joining with more than 150 organisations in support of the campaign to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14.
Children at just 10 years old can be jailed in NSW. This is too young.
As teachers, support staff and unionists, we see potential in every child. Support and early intervention are what young people need – not prison.
This is why the union supports the #RaiseTheAge campaign, which calls on the NSW government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14.
Rely on evidence
The campaign calls on the state government to be guided by evidence – not radio shock jocks – and to:
- provide resources and support for Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to offer local responses for First Nations children and young people, families and communities;
- invest in services for children and families that prevent crime from the start; and
- fund targeted services and interventions that help children learn to be accountable when they go off track or are a serious risk to themselves or others.
The #RaiseTheAge campaign has attracted broad community support from more than 150 organisations including the NSW Teachers Federation, Australian Services Union, Amnesty International and the NSW Council for Civil Liberties.
The campaign is also backed by Catholic Social Services NSW/ACT, Uniting Church Synod of NSW and the ACT, the Mercy Foundation and St Vincent de Paul Society NSW.
Raising the age is also supported by the United Nations, which recommends at least 14 as the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Argentina, Korea, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Ukraine and Germany are just some of the countries that have a minimum age of criminal responsibility of at least 14.
Data compiled by the campaign shows that 2144 children in NSW aged 10-13 had formal contact with police in 2023 – and 171 of these children spent time in lock-up. And 60 per cent of 10-to-13-year-olds in custody every year are First Nations children.
Towards better outcomes
Overwhelming evidence and expert opinion show these children have significant contact with child protection systems, including:
- many have been removed from their families
- many have been victims of crime since they were very young
- many are students with disabilities and mental health issues
- many are not attending or not doing well at school
- many live in regional, rural and remote areas of NSW without access to services and support
- often their parents have been through the criminal justice system, including in custody
- many are likely to live in poverty and experience homelessness.
The current system criminalises the most disadvantaged children. Criminalising children as young as 10 does not prevent crime and can cause a lifetime of harm to a young person.
Raising the age of criminal responsibility and providing support that addresses the causes of offending behaviour achieves better outcomes for children and promotes community safety.
Investing in education and more services for children instead of punishing and imprisoning them not only saves money, it sets children up for safe, successful and happy lives.
The message to the state’s politicians is clearly stated in the campaign’s submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Community Safety in Regional and Rural Communities: “We all want our communities to be safer. And we know that punitive approaches, particularly those directed at children, don’t deliver.”
The IEU supports educating children, not incarcerating them.