Media Releases

The Raise the Age Coalition has condemned the decision of the Meeting of Attorneys-General to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to only 12 years old as inadequate and failing to improve the lives of children and young people.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling a proposal made at yesterday’s Meeting of Attorneys General (MAG) to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, an absolute missed opportunity to look after children.

The Andrews government should use the inquiry into Victoria’s criminal justice system as the catalyst to finally end mass imprisonment, the Human Rights Law Centre will argue in its evidence to the inquiry.

The Andrews Government must urgently reform its punitive bail laws if it is to meet the justice targets it signed on to in the new Closing the Gap Agreement last year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations have called on the Andrews government to take urgent steps to increase transparency and prevent mistreatment behind bars after a new report has highlighted serious weaknesses in disciplinary processes in Victorian prisons.

The Andrews government must take urgent steps to prevent mistreatment and reduce the number of people being funneled into prisons, the Human Rights Law Centre said today, after a new report uncovered serious and systemic wrongdoing in Victoria’s private and public prisons.

In an unusual move, 48 organisations have today publicly released their submissions to the Council of Attorneys-General working group on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 years old.

The Human Rights Law Centre has slammed punitive new laws passed by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory late last night.

The Human Rights Law Centre has today slammed punitive new laws set to be introduced by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory this week.

Children as young as ten in Tasmania can currently be arrested, strip searched and locked up in prison cells. This is out-of-step with medical evidence, human rights law and international standards, with the median age of criminal responsibility worldwide being 14 years old.

Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations wrote to the Acting Premier raising concerns about the ongoing use of 14 day quarantine in prisons.

New laws proposed by the Queensland Government will entrench children from marginalised backgrounds in the quick sand of the youth legal system.

Today, historic and long overdue public drunkenness reforms have passed the Victorian Parliament.

Today, reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness will be debated in the Victorian Parliament. Victoria is one of only two states in Australia yet to act on the recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 30 years ago to decriminalise public drunkenness.

The Andrews Government will today introduce long overdue reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness into the Victorian Parliament.

The Andrews Government has today released the Expert Reference Group’s (ERG’s) report on public drunkenness reform, which recommends decriminalising public drunkenness and the implementation of a public health response.

Two of Australia’s leading human rights organisations - the Human Rights Law Centre and Amnesty International Australia - are calling on the Gutwein Government to prohibit the routine strip searching of children. The Tasmanian Government is currently considering laws that the two national organisations say miss the mark when it comes to the need to protect children from harm and prohibit routine strip searches.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling on Premier Andrews to ensure greater police accountability following recent concerning incidents of police violence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will not prosecute two police officers involved in the death of proud Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, despite the Coroner referring the police officers involved in her death for criminal investigation, saying she believed “an indictable offence may have been committed”.

Today the Commonwealth Government is expected to release Closing the Gap justice targets to address the crisis of Aboriginal incarceration that would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples waiting until 2093 to reach parity with non-Indigenous Australians.

WA police will no longer have the power to lock up people who cannot pay their fines with the passing of the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Amendment Bill 2019.

Today Aboriginal and non-Indigenous legal, health and social justice organisations responded to Government claims that they were working on “ambitious” targets; and called for real and decisive action to end Blak deaths in custody.

Change the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre have welcomed today’s High Court decision confirming that the use of tear gas on children in Don Dale in 2014 was unlawful.

Change the Record calls on state, territory and Commonwealth governments to commit to end Aboriginal deaths in custody in the wake of George Floyd’s death in America - which followed two fatal police shootings here in Australia late last year.

While there are some promising developments in the Victorian Government's new Youth Justice Strategic Plan particularly the Strategy’s focus on early intervention, diversion, and restorative justice – the Strategy does not include a clear roadmap during the ten year period for keeping kids under 14 out of prison.

Today, the Coroner in the inquest into our mum’s death referred two police officers for criminal investigation. This isn’t the end of the road, but it is the beginning of justice for our mum. This is a historic day for Aboriginal people in this country, and a bitter-sweet day for our family. 

The Coroner investigating the death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, will hand down her findings on 9 April 2020. The findings will be delivered via video link, five months after the coronial inquest concluded, and over two years since Tanya’s death.

Chief law-makers in Australia must promote the rights of children with a commitment to raise the age at which children can be locked up, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Working Group tasked to consider the age of legal responsibility.