The Northern Territory government has followed through on an election commitment to tackle a “crime crisis” by urgently introducing laws to lower the age of criminal responsibility and create new offences and tougher penalties including mandatory sentencing for assaults on emergency workers.
The laws have been widely criticised for the troubling impact they will have, particularly on Aboriginal children. But the Country Liberal party government has maintained it was given a mandate for overhauling the justice system after campaigning heavily on crime in the lead up to the August election.
The bills were introduced in parliament on Wednesday morning, the second sitting day of the new legislative assembly. It was expected the laws would be debated later on Wednesday.
Under the laws, the age of criminal responsibility would be lowered from 12 to 10 years old. Under the same bill, two new criminal offences would be introduced.
The bill would create an offence for ram-raiding with a specific property offence “targeting the conduct of a person who intentionally uses a vehicle to cause damage to property” and an offence for “posting and boasting which criminalises behaviour where a person posts about criminal conduct on social media or other publication platforms to glorify the criminal conduct or increase their notoriety”.
The laws also include reinstating the breach of bail as an offence for youth, establishing a single bail presumption regime that applies to adults and youth alike, and introducing a presumption against bail for all alleged serious violence offences, regardless of whether a weapon is used.
Other laws would “simplify and broaden” the powers for police to use handheld scanners to detect and deter knife crime in public places, on public transport vehicles and in schools.
Another law was introduced to crack down on public drinking that would include the option for mandatory alcohol rehabilitation.
Marie-Clare Boothby, the attorney general, told parliament that mandatory sentencing laws that would mean someone found guilty of assaulting an emergency worker spent at least three months in prison were necessary to prevent the “downright unnecessary” attacks on people such as police who were “trying to maintain public peace and respond to emergencies”.
“It’s not a get out of jail free card,” she said.
The opposition leader, Selena Uibo, welcomed the government “mostly staying to convention” on establishing committees to scrutinise legislation, but questioned why the government had given itself a majority on them.
Chansey Paech, the Labor MP for Gwoja, was more critical, saying the government was going against its own claims that it would promote a new era of transparency in parliament.
“The only inquiries that will get up in this parliament are the ones that are picked … by this government,” he said.
Gerard Maley, the deputy chief minister, repeatedly claimed the reforms would help Territorians restore their “lifestyle” and blamed failures of the former Labor government for people “literally dying in the streets”.
In an emotional speech, Maley spoke of a clear mandate his government had been given to overcome the “crime crisis”.
“This crisis situation requires a crisis solution,” he said.
“This is a serious matter, caused by you, and we’re going to fix it, because that’s what Territorians want.”
Maley referred to the family members of those killed by criminals and spoke of a phrase he had heard recently in the territory from people speaking about their homes that “it’s not your castle, it’s your fortress now”.
“That is just disgraceful,” he said.
The national children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, said on Friday that moves to lower the age of criminal responsibility should be resisted as it would be counterproductive.
“We all want to live in safe communities, but this plan by the NT government goes against what all the evidence has shown we need to do to achieve that. It is absolutely critical that they reconsider.
“The younger a child comes into contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they will go on to commit more serious and violent crimes.
“Lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years will not make communities safer, it will only see rates of child offending increase. These are primary school age children, and harsh, punitive responses are not the answer.”
