“This country’s track record of pushing kids as young as 10 through the school-to-prison pipeline is a national disgrace,” he said.

“Aboriginal children account for almost 65 per cent of young people behind bars around Australia,and it’s high time we changed that. Children need to be kept out of the justice system for as long as possible. Locking them up at such a young age makes them more likely to reoffend,often violently,putting the community at risk.“

Mr Battin was the opposition’s spokesman for youth justice,crime prevention and victim support until March,when hemoved to the backbench followingan unsuccessful tilt at the Liberals’ leadership. His stance on raising the age could put him on a collision course with the party after shadow attorney-general Edward O’Donohue last week said the opposition would be “very cautious” in considering the issue.

The Age last week revealed the Andrews government was undermounting internal pressure to raise the age,amid growing evidence about the detrimental effects of incarceration on the development of children’s brains.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child benchmarked 14 years as the absolute minimum age for criminal responsibility.

It cited evidence in the fields of child development and neuroscience,which indicated that maturity and the capacity for abstract reasoning is still evolving in children aged 12 to 13 because their frontal cortex – the area of the brain involved in criminal offending – is still developing.

Mr Battin said in his seven years as a police officer he “never knew a person to walk past a 10-year-old and say,you should be in jail. That shouldn’t sit well with anyone. If you’re 10,11,12,13,you should be treated differently.”

Mr Atkinson,an upper house Liberal MP,told Parliament in February he supported raising the age of criminal responsibility,and he urged attorneys-general across the country to expedite the national review,describing it as “long-overdue reform”.

”From my point of view,it’s extraordinary we can have a 10-year-old who can be sent to prison when clearly they don’t have the emotional intelligence or the necessary comprehension of their actions,” he toldThe Age.

“The issue has been kicked around at a national level for a considerable period of time,and I can’t see why the attorneys-general cannot come to a conclusion and change this really draconian situation. I think it does need a national approach.”

Mr Wakeling said he supported calls to raise the age but he was grappling with how to deal with children under 14 who committed serious crimes such as murder and rape.

“In a general sense,I can understand the need to increase the age for the purposes of trying to stop kids going into jail who don’t need to be there,” he said.

“I’ve got no problem trying to do that ... for crimes that are petty. I’m just grappling with the whole issue of serious crimes,and how we deal with those children.”

Shadow attorney-general Mr O’Donohue said:“While we all want to see fewer young people incarcerated,raising the age of criminality will do nothing to address the underlying reasons why some young people engage in criminal activity in the first place. Keeping young people at school,offering viable employment opportunities and other supports should be a priority for the Andrews Labor government.”

Last week the Victorian government said that,as of May 16,there were three children aged under 14 in custody,who were all 13. In the past two years,none of the incarcerated children under 14 were serving a custodial sentence,with all on remand.

“There is a national conversation happening about whether the age of criminal responsibility should be raised – Victoria is continuing to participate in those discussions and will consider the recommendations that emerge from that process,” a government spokeswoman said. “In the meantime,we’re continuing to tackle the root causes of youth offending,because the best outcome for young people is to avoid contact with the justice system in the first place.”