Victoria's political leaders are facing mounting pressure to raise the criminal age of responsibility, after a Four Corners investigation revealed a report provided to states and territories urged the change two years ago.
The review, prepared for the Council of Attorneys-General in 2020, said criminalising children as young as 10 only compounded pre-existing trauma and created "life-long negative outcomes".
Its recommendation for the age to be raised to 14 "without exception" was backed by a majority of justice departments around the country.
In a united push on Tuesday, the Aboriginal groups set up to lead Victoria's treaty and truth processes urged whoever wins power on November 26 to make urgent reforms.
First Peoples' Assembly co-chair and Taungurung man Marcus Stewart said Aboriginal communities had been asking governments to raise the age for years and were "sick of excuses and inaction".
"Children need love and a helping hand, not to be thrown into concrete cells and consigned to the quicksand of the prison system," he said.
"We're talking about our young kids … locking them up is a barbaric practice and I don't know how the premiers and chief ministers can look themselves in the mirror and think it's ok."
Sue-Anne Hunter, the deputy chair of the state's truth-telling Yoorrook Justice Commission, said elders had shared "heartbreaking" concerns with the commission about the criminalisation of children at a young age.
"They're being removed from family, kin, culture, community, the very thing that protects them," she said.
Ms Hunter, a Wurundjeri and Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman who has worked in the child and family welfare field for more than two decades, said the current laws created a "systemic injustice".
"It's not just our community, it's everybody, and there's overwhelming evidence around the world to say this is wrong and it needs to stop," she said.
Next month, the Yoorrook truth-telling inquiry will begin a series of hearings focused on Victoria's justice system.
"We encourage First Peoples within Victoria, or if the incident happened within Victoria, to make a submission, because all of this shows the systemic injustices that are happening for our people," Ms Hunter said.
Labor suggests it will wait for 'national approach'
As of Friday, there were six children in Victoria's youth justice system aged 13 and 14, and no children aged 10, 11 or 12.
A Victorian Aboriginal youth justice strategy released earlier this year backed the reform, noting Aboriginal children and young people were around 10 times more likely than non-Aboriginal counterparts to come into contact with the justice system.
The state's commissioner for children and young people has argued the evidence exists for Victoria make reforms without delay, noting the ACT had already taken action.
Labor has previously said it was "working to develop and consider" raising the age from 10 to 12, but made no changes during its time in power, despite there being some support on both sides of politics for reform.
There are MPs in both the government and opposition who privately support raising the age to 14, but there are fears that pushing for the age increase could trigger law and order scare tactics to be used in an election campaign.
On Tuesday, Premier Daniel Andrews said a "national approach" would be his preferred solution to the issue and suggested reform could gain greater traction under a federal Labor government.
"Perhaps some of the things that people have talked about doing and getting done … hopefully we can have positive outcomes come from that, but I'm not here today to make any announcements about that," he said.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy did not outline his party's position on the issue, but the Coalition has previously indicated it would not support the change.
The Greens, who could end up holding the balance of power after this month's election, said pushing the changes through parliament would be a high priority.
"We're ready to go in terms of this reform, we can get it done, we just need the major parties to back this reform, we need Labor to back this reform," Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said.
"This cannot go on, we have to raise the age of criminal responsibility."
'Soul-destroying' delays frustrate legal groups
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive officer Nerita Waight said the youngest children who ended up in youth justice centres were "incredibly vulnerable".
"They have mental health conditions, they have disabilities, often enough they've been in care from a very young age and been criminalised in that situation," she said.
She said the service regularly heard children allege they were mistreated in youth justice centres, including being on the receiving end of racist treatment.
Ms Waight, a Yorta Yorta woman, said the state should be investing more in early intervention and therapeutic support programs, not incarceration.
"When we look at our clients, the cycle of incarceration starts very young and it doesn't stop … to say that we're still in this fight, it's soul-destroying, is the best way to describe it," she said.
Ms Waight pointed to the evidence heard at the coronial inquest into the passing of Aboriginal man Raymond Noel Thomas as an example of the harm early criminalisation could have on children.
Years later, he died in a crash after accelerating away from police during a brief pursuit in Melbourne's north.
"[This] story really talks to why our children fear police, and then therefore, you know, fear the justice system and how that can then cost them their lives in circumstances that we wouldn't even anticipate," Ms Waight said.
Ms Waight said the construction of the new Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre west of Melbourne indicated the Andrews government did not plan to radically reduce the number of young people in the justice system.
"That's why it is alarmingly similar to Ravenhall, which is an adult prison, and that's why they'll continue to invest in that stream rather than early prevention and diversion," she said.
'This is a system issue'
In Melbourne's west, lawyer Anoushka Jeronimus said she had seen how socio-economic factors such as racism, poverty and geographical disadvantage made some young people, including children from migrant backgrounds, more vulnerable to getting caught up in the system.
"This is not a particular young person issue or a particular ethnic issue, this is a system issue that demands redress right now," she said.
"And everybody who is part of the system must get together and act to change it."
Ms Jeronimus, who directs WEstjustice's youth law program, said in her 15 years as a practising lawyer she could not think of a single client who she'd encountered under 14 who did not end up staying in the system.
"Criminalising children under 14 does not work, it does not make the community safer, and is not going to stop them from getting into the trouble that led them to being in custody in the first place," she said.
"It causes lifelong harm, and it doesn't make our community safe."
