Lucky Country for whom?

COMMENT by BOB BEADMAN

"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable." This quote was attributed to Mahatma Ghandi.

The annual Closing the Gap Report on Indigenous disadvantage tabled in the Australian Parliament paints a dimmer picture year after year. We are going backwards. The results are shameful.

The finger pointing, blame shedding, continues year after year, decade after decade. Blame colonialism, blame the theft of a continent. Even blame the victims.

Yet Governments at all levels continue with the same failing policies, expecting that next year we will get a different result.

What are the prospects of radical redirection? If the Government was brave, what are the prospects of the Senate passing the necessary legislation?

A former Northern Territory Attorney General once said something along the lines: "The Commonwealth creates this problem, and it is left to the Norther Territory to mop up."

I reckon I know what he meant.

I think he meant “free money” from a generous framework of welfare support, kids not going to school, foetal alcohol syndrome in kids, idle parents.

So how are we measuring up?

Let's paint one side of the picture: Vehicle theft is endemic and the culprits post videos of their escapades such is their disdain for the law.

Brazen theft from service stations and shops and suburban grocery stores is endemic.

Home invasion is frequent.

Break and enter family homes and businesses are at record levels.

A considerable number of these offences occur when the alleged perpetrator is on bail. Often on repeat bail.

The victims of these offences are extremely angry at the courts.

Public anger at the extent of the use of bail is livid.

Public rage around a belief that penalties imposed by a court are too soft for the crime is volcanic.

All of this creates a pressure cooker demand for mandatory sentencing – for the Parliament to take away the discretion of the courts, and to specify the penalties to apply.

Now let us look at the other side.

The rate of imprisonment of Indigenous peoples is our national and international shame.

The cost of incarcerating someone is excruciatingly high.

Studies in various parts of the world show jailing is also ineffective - recidivism is high.

There is also a terrible ongoing social cost to family and community – family disruption, breadwinner missing, raising children.

“Correctional Services” is a fanciful title. No correction, few services, little training.

People are jailed in the NT for offences that would not result in a custodial sentence interstate.

The age of criminal responsibility in the NT is 10. It is 15 in Denmark, 16 in China.

Over 40% of our jail population are on remand – they have not yet been before a court. And they are there for unacceptably long stays because of logjams.

The logjams result from inadequate funding of the police, Director of Public Prosecutions, legal aid services, and the courts.

It is not easy being in Government.

How do you map a policy path that appeases the public, reduces crime, addresses our national and international shame about our incarceration rates of Indigenous peoples, overcomes the stigma of jailing children, reduces the overcrowding in our jails, eliminates the head-in-the-sand approach of building more jails at eye-watering cost, helps reign in our ever-growing budget deficit, with our per capita debt the highest of all states and territories.

It is even harder to govern for all.

The new Northern Territory government has been true to its election promises in respect of law and order, getting tough on crime.

It has legislated to reduce the age of criminal responsibility and toughen bail laws.

These measures have stretched the police, and the courts, the budget and filled the watch houses and the jails.

Victims are likely to be appreciative of these measures and are demanding more.

The people who commit crime, do they even know what Mahatma Ghandi is alleged to have said?

Do they know about their comparative incarceration rates? Do they know about the Closing the Gap annual report?

What they do know is that they are not sharing equally in the fruits of the nation.

They also pass down vivid oral histories of their treatment since the arrival of the colonisers.

Again, how do we measure up on the treatment of our “most vulnerable”?

The future? Investing in more police, more courts, more jails is an eye-wateringly costly approach to an endemic. On this trajectory history will keep on repeating itself. We are on a path to insolvency.

Where is the investment on preventative measures in our recently announce budget? There are countless “justice reinvestment” measures in other states and overseas that are claimed to have worked. Governments must address the causes to effectively eliminate the problem, rather than just the symptoms.

The parlous state of our finances, and our social fabric, demand that we try something different. Something that creates hope.

The Australian Government cannot turn away from their part in this social crisis.

Google Earth IMAGE: The Alice Springs gaol. More than 600 people are incarcerated there.