Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2024

Lowering the minimum age of Criminal Responsibility

The Bill amends sections 38, 38A, 43AP and 43AQ of the Criminal Code to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 years of age. This means from the commencement of this Bill, any person aged 10 years or older can be charged by police for committing an offence against the Criminal Code, so long as that offence is alleged to have been committed after commencement.

Any new charge or conviction against a 10 or 11 year old that is recorded after commencement will be a record that may be disclosed as part of criminal history.

For persons who had charges or convictions expunged by the Criminal Code Amendment (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Act 2022 (which automatically expunged all records of offences committed or alleged to have been committed by a person aged under 12 years of age at the time of the offence up to the date of commencement on 1 August 2023), their records will remain expunged.

While the records remain expunged, the offence of unlawfully disclosing an expunged record is repealed.

The requirements to annotate expunged records is also repealed.

Ram-raid offending

A new offence is inserted in the Criminal Code  through new section 241A Ram-Raid. It provides that a driver of a motor vehicle who intentionally uses the vehicle to damage another person’s property is commiting an offence.

The offence sits in Part VII Division 6 of the Criminal Code as a property offence. This means the defintion of property as releavant to that Division applies, such that it includes any real or personal property of a tangible nature, such as:

• any building or structure, e.g. a shopping centre, a store, a place of business, or a house;
• any vehicle e.g. a police motor vehicle or boat or a personal motor vehicle;
• any other property e.g. a fence, guardrail, roller door, or bollard.

The motor vehicle used to cause damage does not need to have been stolen for the offence to be established. Accomplices can be charged under existing common purpose and joint commission provisions within the Criminal Code.

This offence has a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

Posting and Boasting

A  new offence ‘Publishing material about offending conduct’ is inserted in section 276H of the Criminal Code. This offence is colloquially known as the offence of “post and boast”, and provides that  publishing material (video, photos, texts, etc.) on social media which depicts conduct consistuting specified offences, for the purpose of increasing a person’s reputation or notoriety, or boasting, glorifying or encouraging engagement in the same or similar conduct is an offence.

The offence is intended to be an additional tool for police to target anti-social behaviour that is promoted on social media.

The list of specified offences include:

• recklessly endangering life and serious harm, negligently causing serious and related offences involving vehicles and vessels (Part VI, Division 3A);
• miscellaneous offences against the person (such as drink or food spiking, acts intended to cause serious harm or prevent apprehension, serious harm and harm) (Part VI, Division 4);
• assaults or assault with intent to steal (Part VI, Divisions 5 and 5A);
• theft and related offences (Part VII, Division 1)
• criminal damage (Part VII, Division 6); or
• a provision prescribed by regulation.

Social media includes any digital technology that allows the public sharing of information and ideas virtially, including sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (Twitter) etc.

There is a defence available if the material posted is:

• fictional;
• published for a genuine academic, artistic, educational, journalistic, literary, satirical or scientific purpose; or
• pubished  to inform the public of criminal conduct in order to either complain about the conduct and/or warn, notify or promote awareness of the conduct.

For example, clips of police TV dramas, ‘Action for Alice’ or police statements or videos informing the community of criminal conduct.

This offence has a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment.

The person who publishes the material does not need to be the offender involved in the depicted conduct. This means a bystander who films the criminal conduct, or other person who receives the filmed criminal conduct, then posts that material to social media for the purpose of increasing a person’s reputation or notoriety, or boasting, glorifying or encouraging engagement in the same or similar conduct, can be prosecuted.

Additionally, a person can be charged both with the post and boast offence and the offence depicted in the material published (if the alleged offender of that conduct).

Where can I go if I need further information?

For more information, please visit Legislation Database (nt.gov.au) or contact:

Legal Policy
Location: Level 7, Old Admiralty Towers, 68 The Esplanade, Darwin NT 0800
Postal Address: GPO Box 1722, Darwin NT 0801
Ph: 08 8935 7668
Fax: (08) 8935 7662
Email: Policy.AGD@nt.gov.au