“At present children between the ages of 10 to 14 can be charged and convicted of an offence if the court is satisfied that they have the requisite knowledge to know what they are doing is wrong,” Mr Stefaniak said.

“I have prosecuted, defended and known a number of 11, 12 and 13 year olds offenders who were well-aware of the wrongfulness of what they were doing .

“It would be ludicrous for a 13-year-old, to be able to murder someone, knowing full well it was wrong and not be able to be prosecuted for it.”

Mr Stefaniak wondered how the groups calling for this, such as the ACT Human Rights Commission, the Australian Medical Association, and the ACTCOSS, would feel if a loved one of theirs was murdered by a 13-year-old who could not be prosecuted.

He said young offenders are not sent to prison, they go to a juvenile justice institution.

“A community solution is detention at our juvenile justice institution. It should have programs in place to assist the young offenders come out better people than when they went in. Education is a good tool to help stop young people getting into trouble in the first place as well, especially indigenous young people,” he said.

Mr Stefaniak puts blame on the ACT government, saying its failed a generation of juvenile and adult detainees while blithely chanting empty words about human rights.

He says the discussions about the age of criminal responsibility are a distraction to the fundamental failure of the ACT government when it comes to the whole detention system.

“Those in our community who are calling for these changes are largely silent when it comes to calling out the failures of the Labor/Green Government and in particular, Mr Rattenbury when it comes to justice and community safety,” he said.

“Young people in the ACT who do end up in juvenile detention may start a journey that has them in later years in adult detention where the ACT has the worst record for rehabilitation of offenders in the nation.

“The appalling record of the ACT government over the last decades with record high recidivism rates in out detention centres and jail is something Barr and Rattenbury should hang their heads in shame over.”