The new government threw barbs at “do-gooders down south”, accused former chief ministers of gaslighting Territorians, and one MP even used the term “intergenerational trauma” to refer to the impact on his young daughters of seeing a fight at a market.
But amid the bombast in the Northern Territory parliament this week was something else: a fundamental disagreement about whether lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 would make the community safer.
As they passed the bill to lower the age, members of the Country Liberal party, which took government in August, repeatedly claimed that they did not want the laws to result in more children being placed in youth detention.
Instead, they said lowering the age from 12 to 10 was necessary to intervene as early as possible in the lives of children heading down the wrong track, as part of a broad suite of measures introduced in the first week of parliament to restore the “way of life” of Territorians.
Other MPs, from the Labor opposition to independents, accused the government of reckless lawmaking that would fail the territory and “harm and torture” their kids.
The opposition leader, Selena Uibo, described it as “a dark day for the territory”.
Chansey Paech, the Labor MP for Gwoja, said it was ridiculous and “absolute crap” for the government to claim it had to criminalise a child to help them.
“We know you are falling through the cracks, we know you have complex needs … but in order to help you, we need to criminalise you first.
“You do not need to put a 10-year-old in front of a judge to help them.”
The laws were passed late on Thursday.
The bill containing the amendment to lower the age also contained two new criminal offences: for ram raiding; and “posting and boasting”, described as when a person posts about crime on social media. Labor supported these new offences.
Marie-Clare Boothby, the attorney general, told parliament that the government was going to ignore the calls of national bodies not to implement the laws.
“My response to all of these do-gooders down south is that you cannot keep telling us we can’t change the laws to break the cycle,” she said.
“Instead of telling Territorians what they should and shouldn’t accept, how about those southerners work with us?
“Territorians are sick and tired of crime, no matter what the age of the offender is … they want to see change, and they want to see action.”
Other laws to address the “crime crisis” were passed late on Wednesday, including so-called Declan’s Law, which creates a presumption against bail for youth and adult serious violent offenders.
The law is named after Declan Laverty, a 20-year-old who was fatally stabbed while working at a Darwin bottle shop in March 2023.
He was killed during an altercation with a customer who was on bail for a previous alleged assault.
Yiŋiya Guyula, the independent member for Mulka, said on Wednesday night that he acknowledged the family and friends of Laverty who were in parliament, and that he supported their fight for change, but that he could not support the new law.
He said he feared the reform would cause ongoing harm similar to the impact that Victoria’s bail crackdown after the Bourke Street massacre.
Those unintended consequences included the death of Veronica Nelson, he said.
“This bill and all five bills being debated on urgency are a very sad and disappointing way to start a new term of parliament, and I will not be supporting these bills.
“I urge the government to reconsider this process and adjourn the debates so that more consideration can be given to creating better laws to break the cycle of ongoing harm by addressing the underlying issues.”
Justine Davis, the independent member for Johnstone, told the Guardian shortly before debate started on Thursday that she was convinced the laws would make all Territorians less safe.
She raised concerns about the lack of preparation done in relation to the policing, prosecution and correction related costs of the reforms.
“We have a justice system that is unable to cope with current demand, and it’s going to get worse.”
The laws being introduced in the first days of parliament also include a push to reduce the minimum price of alcohol from $1.30 to $0.30, which experts are concerned will lead to a spike in alcohol-related harms.
Minimum pricing, introduced in 2018, resulted in a 14% decline in alcohol related assaults in Darwin and reduced alcohol-related emergency department presentations by almost a fifth, Stephanie Holmes, the executive officer of the Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies Northern Territory said.
An open letter signed by almost every health organisation in the NT urged the territory’s chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro to not remove or relax policies that minimise alcohol harm.
The letter said that Finocchiaro, alongside the prime minister and all first ministers acknowledged the role of alcohol in exacerbating domestic violence and committed to reviewing alcohol laws and their impact on victim-survivors.
