Comments on: Mandatory sentencing or not, that is the question

By: Russell Guy

Russell Guy — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:44:25 +0000

David @ August 15. My comment is in relation to the CL alcohol policy and how it will effect many of their election promises in other portfolios. The economy of scale relating to alcohol consumption and subsequent cost to taxpayers through over-supply (a link which critics fail to understand) is not exactly “small beer.”
In relation to your comment about the NT election and the national interest, it would be great if we could send a positive message about the Aussie drinking culture spiralling out of control, but instead, we have negative consumption and abuse figures across many social indicators, specifically in violence and self-harm.
This should challenge those ideologically opposed to see the sense in NT Labor’s alcohol policy direction, but addiction works against sensible outcomes and outright rejection of evidence-based data appears to be a case of the blind leading the blind into a deepening ditch. You seem to be aware of this.

By: David Chewings

David Chewings — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:53:02 +0000

@Russell Guy, posted August 9 2012 at 10:12 pm
“Unreal! Vote for the CLP and watch how crazy it gets.”
Your words Russell, my thoughts exactly. On the national scale this NT election is pretty small beer. There are so many issues but not a lot of controversy bar the attack on an 18 year old named Jesse the other weekend in Darwin.
D. R. Chewings aka THE lone dingo.

By: Janet Brown

Janet Brown — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:31:36 +0000

I want to know that my family and myself are safe and protected. Yet the court systems have twisted and turned so much that people are experiencing crimes against them by criminals that have long histories of offences of similar criminal behavior against so many other persons. This has to end. We currently promote poor crime … give him a break and to the victim. We currently have a knowledge that we don’t factor because without the temptation that we put in their way we are responsible for their criminal behavior. Crap! Commit a crime do the time. Time for governments to protect the people and punish the criminals.

By: Russell Guy

Russell Guy — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:42:45 +0000

Mandatory sentencing, mandatory rehabilitation (See CLP advertisement in today’s NT News). Terry Mills hasn’t costed his grog policy, but one thing’s certain, he intends to give the alcohol industry free rein while we taxpayers pay the costs, whether we’re responsible drinkers or tax-supported problem drinkers.
Even a Darwin Hospital surgeon connected with the Australasian Body of Surgeons recommends a floor price, restricting availability and reduced trading hours, but is Terry listening? Noooo! “The BDR’s not working.” The surgeon reckons it helps, as do the police and of course it’s not enough, but NT Labor’s moving forward on alcohol management – the CLP is going backwards while the prisons are set to overflow with their ‘tough on crime’ policy.
I’ve just come from the Alice Springs ACL webcast that lost its Darwin feed. All we got was about 60 secs of Terry saying that it was up to us to tell him what we wanted.
Unbelievable! In the McNair Anderson media ratings surveys, media managers used to rely on what people said they wanted and what happened was that the whole show got dumbed down to the populist denominator.
Give the people what they want. And charge them accordingly so that the promise of affordable housing can’t possibly be kept. Unreal! Vote for the CLP and watch how crazy it gets.

By: Simon Walker

Simon Walker — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:33:16 +0000

Ian Sharp or “Sharpie” as he is known is diminishing all the people of Alice Springs who don’t vote for Labor (about 75% at last count). Accusing them of falling for some “self serving Laura Norder Opportunists.” As if to suggest they don’t have a brain to think for themselves. As if to suggest that the CLP can work such wizardry that no matter what policies they put forward, people will follow them without question. This is the very reason Labor have failed for nearly four decades in Alice. Then CLP don’t need to wedge Labor to gain votes. And who are the blow-ins you talk about? Conlan? Giles? Lambley? Well how about Rock? Findlay? Foley? “Sharpie” why don’t you put your opinions where your mouth is and run for Parliament? … Didn’t think so!
As for Your good mate Jodeen Carney, well she quit and left the Territory! She was never cut out to lead the CLP.

By: Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:45:45 +0000

For the readers information these are questions I have sent to the two main candidates for Braitling.
“I am concerned about what I am hearing about this process of fracking and its possible impact on the groundwater supply in Central Australia especially the town of Alice Springs and its surrounds. Could you please let me know your parties position and/or policies on this issue, the following questions come to mind on this matter:
Is horizontal or vertical fracking allowed anywhere near the Alice Springs water supply aquifers?
Is horizontal or vertical fracking allowed anywhere near cattle stations, farms or other potential food producing properties or lands where groundwater is available?
If it was allowed in these areas is it possible that fracking at, under or near a water supply could allow the ground water to vanish into voids or spaces created by fracking at a greater depth?
Will the chemicals or other substances used during the fracking process contaminate the groundwater supplies in these areas?
Will the voids created by any subsequent mining, oil or gas extraction be filled by the groundwater leaking into these voids through fracture in ground created by fracking?
Will the water used for fracking be at the expense of domestic use, stock use or any food producing water?
If your party forms the next NT Government will you be approving any present or future applications for fracking?
Would an Environment Management Plan for fracking or a mining process which may include fracking be able to guarantee the survival of existing groundwater supplies in or around any mining or exploration lease?”
Note: According to Wikipedea online “In 2011 France became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing.”

By: David Chewings

David Chewings — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:07:18 +0000

@ 9/8/12 post by Ian Sharp.
And have, in hindsght, the policies of the Henderson government and their fairly blind support for Johnnie’s Intervention really achieved much, Ian Sharp?
The education statistics are not much to crow about … yet. For better or for worse, the intervention is a permanent, assimilationist policy.
In the short term, this has created a police state resulting in the gaols being overfull mainly with black men as a result of the war on grog. The suicide stats. just can’t be ignored in this election.
I know Labor has done lots but you gotta wonder if the CLP could do any better.

By: Ian Sharp

Ian Sharp — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 03:11:43 +0000

Some confusion, but it is clear CLP does intend to introduce mandatory sentencing for some offences if they win Government. Not for the property offences that Shane Stone’s govt targeted back in the 90s … but the effects will be the same, to remove judicial discretion which exists to take into account all the circumstances of a matter. This is a populist response to the common community perception of court’s handing out ‘slaps on the wrist’ … a misinformed view based on lack of knowledge and understanding (and promoted by tabloid local media outlets) but it allows a party of opportunists to attempt to wedge Labor to gain votes.
Been a good strategy in Alice Springs for over 30 years, why stop now? Long been a way for blow-ins from down south to come into town, sniff the breeze, and play to the crowd. Achieves nothing in terms of crime reduction, but that is not the point is it? We need and deserve a better approach. Would be good to get some bipartisanship on this. Possible under a leader like Jodeen Carney, but look what happened to her. We are stuck with LauraNorder self-serving opportunists.

By: Russell Goldflam

Russell Goldflam — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:09:52 +0000

I was unable to attend the Meet the Candidates forum because of a prior work commitment, so thank you Alice Springs News for providing such a detailed report.
There is an inaccuracy in your story: You say, “Mandatory sentencing does continue under the Labor Government, most notably for murder which attracts a minimum 20 year sentence (reduced from mandatory life in 2005).” In fact, murder attracts a mandatory minimum life sentence, with a mandatory minimum 20 year non-parole period (or in some “aggravated” cases, 25 years).
As to the debate about whether the Country Liberals’ latest policy announcement regarding a minimum three months sentence for assaults against a person working in a public setting amounts to “mandatory sentencing” or not, make no mistake: it does.
It is a different policy, targeting a different type of offending, from the mandatory sentencing laws passed by the CLP in 1997. But if enacted, it would, like its discredited predecessor, inevitably lead to serious injustice, without achieving any benefits. Whether you call such laws “mandatory sentencing”, “minimum sentencing” or “compulsory imprisonment”, their effect is similarly obnoxious: Courts are prevented from doing their job, which is to exercise judicial discretion; and some minor offenders end up being unfairly imprisoned.
The Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory is opposed in principle to mandatory sentencing, whether it be Labor’s current mandatory life sentencing of murderers, the mandatory imprisonment of all property offenders under the former CLP government, or the Country Liberals’ current proposal to compulsorily imprison a broad range of violent offenders.
We already have the toughest sentencing laws in the nation. We also have the highest rate of recidivism (re-offending) in the nation. The more people we send to prison, the more repeat offenders we will produce. In these circumstances, passing laws which needlessly and unfairly send minor offenders to prison will in all likelihood result in not a reduction, but an increase in crime.

By: Kieran Finnane

Kieran Finnane — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:04:03 +0000

Simon Walker, can I suggest that such a forum is a time for giving clear and precise answers that do not require conjecture as to their thrust? I also spoke to Mr Giles today to get clarification, as reported. In a perfectly civil exchange, he told me he did not accept that minimum sentencing for categories of assault is mandatory sentencing. For the benefit of readers, here is a transcription of the exchange between Trish van Dijk from the floor and Adam Giles, with a final comment from Matt Conlan. Trish van Dijk: I would like to ask Adam Giles and the CLP generally, but to Adam Giles perhaps, given that the prison is absolutely chock-a-block and overcrowded to the maximum, and given that there are 90% or thereabouts of Indigenous people in the prison, and I know law and order is a big [item on your agenda], would you be considering bringing back mandatory sentencing which would exacerbate the matter to an almost impossible rate. And probably do no good because the recidivism out at the prison is very, very high too. So, given that it's a legal challenge that maybe mandatory sentencing is not legal, would the CLP be pursuing that agenda as they have promised to do? Adam Giles: Thanks, Trish, for the question. No, we won't be pursuing mandatory sentencing. I can say I am emotionally disturbed by the level of Indigenous incarceration and the recidivism rate. I think in 2012 in a nation such as Australia the level of Indigenous incarceration is appalling. I've been around politics long enough, I know that if it was a Liberal Government and this was happening, Labor would be singing from the rafters, absolutely bagging us about what was happening. We lock up black Territorians seven times more than they ever did under Apartheid in South Africa and [inaudible]. It is disturbing what is happening. There are fundamental problems in our social psyche across the Territory. We know many of those issues and we've got to put in place reform at the structural level to try to fix some of these things. We've spoken about the Planning Commission, housing, outstations, regional councils, economic development. There's a range of areas we need to address to try to get to the root causes of some of the problems. I believe we need to do a number of things and that's why we've got a policy around mandatory rehabilitation and voluntary rehabilitation for people who have got chronic alcohol misuse or abuse problems. So that anyone picked up three times in a six month period will have to go to either voluntary rehabilitation or mandatory rehabilitation. We don't want people clogging up our police stations night after night, getting washed in and washed out because they're drunk on the streets. We want to try and help people, we don't want those people ending up through the prison system which is what's happening now as a result of breaking into people's houses or commercial premises to get grog. It's not working under the current alcohol regime. All we're doing is locking up black Territorians and I'm not happy with it. Trish van Dijk: So is that a definitive no? Adam Giles: No, right at the start, no. Matt Conlan: No, it's not happening.