00:00Music
00:05Joe Hedges' gym is a haven for kids who've fallen off track.
00:10Boxing's all about discipline, it's about respect, it's about working hard.
00:15If you can develop those here in the ring, you can take those out into life.
00:20Over two decades of coaching, he's learnt the power of diverting children from the criminal justice system.
00:27Young people don't belong in custody, young people belong with their family, they belong in the community, they belong at school.
00:34The ACT will make history tomorrow by increasing the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
00:41Instead of facing charges, young people will be referred to a therapeutic support panel to help address the causes of their behaviour.
00:49There'll be exceptions for the most serious crimes, including murder and specific sexual offences.
00:56Criminalising young children really does no one any good.
01:01It doesn't help the children, in fact it harms the children, but also it doesn't keep communities any safer.
01:08Elsewhere in Australia, offenders as young as 10 can be locked up, and the political appetite to change that has largely disappeared.
01:17The ACT government is to be commended for frankly having such courage to push through in the face of a drag from other larger states in the opposite direction.
01:27Queensland recently introduced adult crime, adult time laws.
01:32Zero tolerance now!
01:34The territory has lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10.
01:39And Victoria has backflipped on its pledge to raise the age to 14.
01:44I would hope that pushing through the growing pains of this process, perhaps there's a beacon for other states to be courageous as well.
01:53The ACT government says the territory is well prepared for the change, and there are no service gaps for ACT policing.
02:00It's confirmed the Safer Youth Response Service will start offering after hours support, taking crisis referrals from police.
02:09Community organisations know their programs can make a difference to troubled kids, but are worried about already stretched wait lists.
02:18There are 123 young people just in that age group alone.
02:21Through policing they've actually said we're going to get slammed with referrals, and I'm like, well, what, for a wait list?
02:28They're going to go on a wait list.
02:29It's a great change to raise that age, but what we need to see is that investment back into the community,
02:35and particularly for programs and services like the ones we run.
02:38Coming out swinging for more funding, so young people don't fall through the cracks.
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