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Former Don Dale child inmates to share in record $35 million settlement
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Northern Territory children mistreated in facilities such as the infamous Don Dale Youth Detention Centre have won a $35 million payout, after the NT government reached a record-breaking settlement with law firm Maurice Blackburn.
The class action covers any young person who was mistreated between 2006 and 2017, estimated to be about 1200 people.
The image of Dylan Voller in a spit-hood at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre that helped trigger the royal commission.
Credit:ABC
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On 26 July last year, state and territory attorneys-general deferred a long-awaited decision on raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, citing the need for more time to explore alternatives to incarceration.
One year on, there is still no national consensus or change.
It’s prompted renewed calls to make the move and a coalition of legal, medical and human rights groups to write to federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash.
The group of 47 organisations from the Raise the Age coalition - including the Human Rights Law Centre, Murdoch Children s Research Institute, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and multiple Indigenous legal centres - have written to Senator Cash seeking an update on progress.
A coalition of legal, medical and human rights groups have written to Attorney-General Michaelia Cash in a renewed push to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
In Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, remanded in custody, convicted by the courts and jailed.
Some 499 children aged between 10 and 13 were detained in the youth justice system in 2019/20, with more than two-thirds identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Federal, state and territory attorneys-general met on July 27, 2020, to discuss raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, which would bring the nation in line with international standards.
But they deferred a decision by at least one year to allow a working group, led by the WA justice department, to examine alternatives to imprisonment for youth offenders.