Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2022-02-08 Daily Xml

Contents

Age of Criminal Responsibility

In reply to the Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16 November 2021).

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer): The Attorney-General has advised:

On 12 November 2021, at the Meeting of Attorneys-General, the Marshall Liberal government was pleased to support the motion for state attorneys-general to develop a proposal to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, including with regard to any carve outs, timing and discussion of implementation requirements.

The government has consistently indicated its preference for there to be national consensus on this issue where possible, and so the Marshall Liberal government will continue to work with our state counterparts to consider this issue.

For the year 2020 in South Australia, 489 charges were laid against 78 children aged 10 or 11 and 27 per cent of these children were of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage.

The Marshall Liberal government is supportive of the national push to develop a proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years of age.