Forwarded from Christine Howes: Friday 17/3/00 : ATSIC Media Release Protecting children from the foolishness of adults News that there won't be any government support for a private member's bill exempting children from the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing regime is a cause for despair in Aboriginal communities, according to an ATSIC Commissioner from Central Australia. "Protecting children from the foolishness of adults should be the overriding concern for the members of any government," the Commissioner for ATSIC's NT (Central) Zone, Alison Anderson, said today. "Exempting children is the least action any politician should take. "No argument about respecting territory rights can justify a lack of action to protect a regime that does not deliver justice in its treatment of juveniles." Commissioner Anderson, from Papunya, said lack of government initiative on mandatory sentencing issues meant that reconciliation is dead in the water. "What do we have to reconcile with if laws like this are allowed to continue in the NT and Western Australia?" she asked. "We look to the government to ensure that justice is uniformly applied across this country. Now the message is that different laws apply to different people, depending on where you live. "If that's going to continue, I'd like to see federal support for a move towards incorporating traditional indigenous law into the legislative framework so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can begin administering our own justice. "I'm also disappointed that individual members of the government parties who oppose mandatory sentencing apparently have allowed themselves to be persuaded not to cross the floor. "Not only can we not count on the government, we can't count on the consciences of individuals to save our children. "When consciences mean nothing, it's hard to see that we can make any progress to overcoming the gap between black and white Australia." -- ********************************* Make the Hunger Site your homepage! http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html ********************************* ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
