Child labour? This Australian government wants 10-year-old do unpaid work. Here's why 

The New South Wales (NSW) government has unofficially suggested that children as young as 10 could be put on "extended payment plans" or into unpaid work programmes so that they could pay off heavy fines for breaking Covid restrictions. The news has left the state's community legal centres infuriated.The groups cautioned that children lacked the capacity to pay or comprehend the enforcement mechanism. As per a The Guardian report, children between the age of 10-17 in NSW have been issued close to 3,000 fines for not properly complying with the public health act and these penalties are usually for a mind-boggling amount of $1000.

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Speaking to Guardian Revenue NSW confirmed that Work and Development orders (WDOs) were utilised for persons under the age of 18 for Covid rule violations. However, it is not known how many kids were put on WDOs as a result of Covid violations or how old they were.

WDOs apparently allow participants to lower fines by participating in unpaid work, counselling, courses, or treatment programmes.

Earlier this year some legal organisations, including Community Legal Centres NSW, had written to the premier asking for Covid fines to be abolished for minors aged 10 to 17.

The organisations demanded that warnings be given to the kids instead of penalties and cautioned that poor neighbourhoods were being disproportionately affected by the fines.

This prompted the state government to informally announce its plan to utilise WDOs earlier this year.

Katrina Ironside, executive director of Community Legal Centres NSW, questioned what young person, particularly one from a low-income neighbourhood, would have the resources to pay off such a fee or the mental capacity to comprehend the enforcement process.

“Is the chief commissioner suggesting a 10-year-old get a job?” questioned Ironside, adding “A child already living in poverty burdened with a debt they cannot pay further entrenches that poverty before they are even old enough to earn their own money.”

(With inputs from agencies)