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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1556 asked in the Legislative Council on 4 December 2019 by Hon Alison Xamon

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY — AGE

1556. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Leader of the House representing the Attorney General:

(1) Does the Attorney General support calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility?

(2) If no to (1), why not?

(3) Given recent reporting that the federal Attorney-General is ''not overly enthusiastic'' about raising the age, will the McGowan government move to increase the age of criminal responsibility in WA in the absence of Council of Australian Governments agreement on this issue?

(4) If no to (3), why not?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1)–(4) The Attorney General placed the issue of the age of criminal responsibility on the agenda of the Council of Attorneys-General in November last year following the recommendations of a royal commission in the Northern Territory and the Northern Territory government's commitment to raise the age to 12 years. A working group led by the WA Department of Justice was formed and reported to the most recent CAG in Adelaide last week. The working group will shortly commence public consultation and report back to the Council of Attorneys-General in 2020. The results of that consultation will inform the position of the McGowan government on the issue. The communique from last week's Council of Attorneys-General noted that there was ''strong interest in the review of the age of criminal responsibility''.