The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls condemns the NSW Government’s carceral approach to reviewing doli incapax—a centuries-old legal presumption that children aged 10 to 13 are not criminally responsible unless they clearly understand their actions were seriously wrong.
This review, launched by Attorney General Michael Daley, comes in the wake of declining conviction rates for children following the High Court’s 2016 RP v The Queen decision.
‘Instead of taking this moment to build pathways of care, support and healing for our children, the NSW Government appears to be laying the groundwork for harsher punitive measures,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘We reject the framing that sees children as threats to be managed, rather than children in need of compassion, safety and community support. Children are not problems to be solved—they are futures to be nurtured. We must stop punishing them and start caring for them,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The decision to appoint a former Supreme Court judge and a former Deputy Police Commissioner to lead this review speaks volumes. These are not child development experts. They are not people with lived experience of the systems that harm our children,’ said Tabitha Lean. ‘They are deeply entrenched in the very institutions responsible for criminalising, imprisoning and traumatising children. Their expertise lies in enforcing punishment—not in building futures,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘This is not an independent or community-led review. It is a review by two men with long histories of upholding carceral systems,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The National Network call on the NSW Government to abandon this punitive review and instead invest in real, community-led, transformative solutions that prioritise care over criminalisation. We need housing, education, healthcare, and trauma-informed support—not more ways to punish our kids,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘We must start looking at dismantling systems that target, surveil and incarcerate children—particularly Aboriginal children—at obscene rates,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Children do not belong in courtrooms. They belong in classrooms, in homes, in communities that nurture them. It’s time we stopped asking how to punish children better and started asking how to love them harder,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226.
