Despite going against the recommendations of experts and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, breaches of bail by children as young as ten in the Northern Territory will now be a crime after parliament passed legislation on Wednesday.
As protests raged outside in criticism of plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10, the second sitting day of the 15th Legislative Assembly saw the CLP government introduced the Police Administration Amendment Bill 2024 and Bail Legislation Amendment Act 2024, both of which passed parliament with the government's super majority.
Known as 'Declan's Law', the new legislation includes criminalising breaches of bail for alleged youth offenders allowing wanding for weapons in schools.
The Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has pushed back on criticism that her government's policies will further incarceration rates and do nothing to prevent crime, saying on Wednesday community safety was her government's number one priority.
She argued figures which showed 53 per cent of the 1,411 youths charged with offences between July 2023 to June 2024 were on bail "should send chills down the spine of every Territorian".
"These figures show just how much the Labor government has let down Territorians and we will continue on our promise to deliver in the first sittings of the Parliament," she said.
On lowering the age, which has been condemned why medical, human rights, Indigenous and legal experts, with no evidence offered on how it will lower crime, Ms Finocchiaro told Parliament experts need to offer solutions.
"To people who want to be political commentators or throw stones at our government on issues we took to the election and promised Territorians we would deliver—which we now are—I say, be part of the solution not part of the problem," she said.
Shadow attorney general Chansey Paech said on Wednesday the new legislation flew in the face of recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, which "made it clear that locking up children will further entrench them in a life of crime".
"Changing bail laws is not addressing root causes," the Eastern Arrernte and Gurindji man said.
"Lowering the age of criminal responsibility and locking 10- year-olds into prison is not addressing root causes."
He argued it was setting children up to "fail and become career criminals", calling it a "purely punitive measure that will ultimately make our communities less safe".
Independent MP and Yolŋu man, Yingiya Mark Guyula said the NT already "locks up almost four times more children than the next highest jurisdiction in Australia," and argued the new government "will jail more First Nations adults and children than ever before by passing these Bills".
"As a senior Yolŋu leader, I can say this is not what we want for our people," Mr Guyula said.
"We want to see community-led solutions, and I have said that before, over and over like a broken record now."
The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody called for detention to be a last resort, which the new legislation will disregard. It also seemingly goes against the government's commitment to Closing the Gap.
Mr Guyula said the CLP had no Indigenous MPs but was passing bills which would overwhelmingly impact Aboriginal people, calling for the issues to be talked through with First Nations leaders.
"I speak for many other elders when I say those words - not just Yolŋu people but from across the Northern Territory - we are sick and tired of being ignored by government after government," he said.
"These are our people who you are locking up. We want to be part of the solution for looking after our people and helping to bring safety to all our communities."
A new report last week from the NT Child Commissioner found every child under 14 in youth custody in the NT had an interaction with Child Protection—94 per cent had been exposed to domestic and/or family violence.
National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds offered 24 recommendations to change youth justice - including by raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 - in her report in August.
"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," she said.
When the criminalising of bail breaches for children was introduced in Queensland last year - after the state was forced to suspend the Human Rights Act to do so - National Indigenous Times reported charges and the incarceration of mostly Indigenous children skyrocketed.
Experts spoke of children who were given highly restrictive or punitive bail conditions, with one child being given a choice between prison and going to a home where they had previously been the victim of sexual assault.
Another child was told to live with an abusive stepfather or remain behind bars; they instead chose to spend their nights on the street - homeless - risking a criminal charge for breach of bail to escape the premises.
