Lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 will not reduce crime in the NT, Malarndirri McCarthy warns.
Speaking on ABC radio in the wake of the Country Liberal Party legislation which passed the Legislative Assembly late Thursday evening, the Minister for Indigenous Australians said she was "deeply disappointed" the decision had been rushed through parliament.
In the federal government's harshest comments since the new NT government said they would enact the new laws - widely criticised by experts - Senator McCarthy said, "given the views across the Northern Territory about the concerns for children and youth," she believed the decision had been rushed, especially given the views "about the concerns for children and youth".
"I think that those conversations haven't been had," she said, "and in good faith those conversations…should have taken place".
The draft legislation was only released on Tuesday, with Labor critical of it being "rushed" through parliament without oversight.
The CLP argued their mandate called for the legislation to be implemented immediately.
Asked if thought the legislation would lower crime, Senator McCarthy, who represents the NT int he senate, said: "No, it won't."
"I don't believe it will, not when you also see the changes with alcohol."
Experts have urged the government to commit to maintaining the minimum unit price, or floor price, of alcohol in the Territory, while there has been criticism of a decision to criminalise "nuisance public drinking," which experts say will further entrenched poverty.
Senator McCarthy said previous alcohol laws were having a "disastrous impact" on the streets of Alice Springs before they were changed.
"...any changes to alcohol which increases alcohol output across the Northern Territory, will be a real concern," she said.
Aboriginal young people account for approximately 95 per cent of the youth detention population—the overwhelming majority on remand awaiting a hearing our outcome to their case.
The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody called for Indigenous incarceration to be a last resort.
Children under 14 spend an average of 197 days on remand in the NT, with only 23 per cent given a custodial sentence.
A new report last week from the Northern Territory 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.
NT shadow Attorney-General Chansey Paech told Guardian Australia the new laws were "a contemporary system of racial control". Senator McCarthy was more circumspect, but agreed with the Eastern Arrernte and Gurindji man that the news laws are not a positive step.
"This is quite a huge step for the Northern Territory to start going backwards when there was a sense it was going forwards with regards to finding other avenues of juvenile diversionary programs," she said.
After the law passed Parliament on Thursday evening, one of the founders of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), senior Nygina and Jabirra Jabirra woman Natalie Hunter, said: "Kids don't belong in jail, they belong on Country with their family."
"Some of our kids are being moved away from family, community and culture and dropped into the horror of Don Dale," Ms Hunter said, citing the notorious youth detention centre which has been slated to continue operation despite the findings of a Royal Commission to the contrary.
"Stop taking our kids away. Our children need health and support, tender loving care and not treated with torture and abuse."
