Senators from the Liberal and Greens parties have called for raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old, following a federal inquiry into Australia’s youth justice system. The Senate committee’s report, released on Friday, proposed four key recommendations, including setting national minimum standards for youth justice and creating a “National Child and Community Safety Taskforce.” It also suggested launching an education campaign to inform young people about youth crime and establishing a separate Senate committee to examine the causes of youth incarceration in Australia. Currently, most Australian states and territories set the age of criminal responsibility at 10 years old, with Victoria at 12 and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at 14. The age for federal crimes is also 10. Senators Andrew McLachlan (Liberal) and David Shoebridge (Greens) argued that the committee should have pushed harder to ensure all jurisdictions raise the age to 14. They expressed concern over the lack of a unified national approach to the youth justice crisis, despite declining youth crime rates and the increasing number of children being incarcerated. The senators highlighted that punitive laws were often driven by political and media pressures rather than evidence, leading to a system that locks up children who are predominantly from disadvantaged backgrounds, including those who are poor, Indigenous, or living with disabilities or trauma. These children often face further harm within a system that worsens their existing challenges. The overrepresentation of First Nations and disabled children in Australia’s prisons was described as a disgrace, with no current government plans to address the issue. The Northern Territory was specifically criticized in the report, as its government departments and officials did not appear before the committee despite high incarceration rates and reports of systemic and casual brutality. Evidence also showed a high prevalence of disability among incarcerated youth, including conditions like fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Studies from various states revealed that a significant portion of young people in detention had unmet health, mental, or cognitive needs, with those having FASD being 19 times more likely to be incarcerated than their peers. The committee stressed the need for a nationally consistent approach to dealing with children in conflict with the law, rather than fragmented efforts across different states and territories. Nick Espie, executive director of the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal service, emphasized that the federal government must take action to address the crisis, as the findings clearly show the prime minister has a responsibility to end the alarming rise in youth incarceration.