The only other minister who can look so benign while lying so outrageously is Robert Hill. I think Howard's choice of Ruddock as the man responsible for reconciliation illustrates very clearly what Howard's real position on reconciliation is. Trudy The Sydney Morning Herald Fewer Aborigines face jail, Ruddock tells UN Date: 24/03/00 By SIMON MANN, Herald Correspondent in Geneva The Immigration Minister, Mr Ruddock, was not convinced by the United Nations that mandatory sentencing would increase the jailing of indigenous Australians. He said Aborigines were less represented in property offences than some other sectors of the community and the burden of proof in cases that carried a mandatory jail sentence would be greater than in other criminal proceedings. "It is not unreasonable to assume that mandatory sentencing will probably lead to Aboriginals being less represented in incarceration than they would have otherwise been," he said. But in Canberra yesterday, the Attorney-General, Mr Williams, contradicted Mr Ruddock. Asked whether mandatory sentencing hurt Aborigines in particular, Mr Williams said: "Well the fact is - and it's widely documented - that the indigenous people are overrepresented proportionately in the criminal justice system, and on that basis the impact on them is proportionately greater." Facing a second day of grilling by the Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Mr Ruddock said Australia's Federal system made it difficult for Canberra to trample the States over mandatory sentencing. "I'm not offering to defend it because my Prime Minister has said he personally does not favour mandatory sentencing." Committee members have been questioning Mr Ruddock and senior Australian officials on a range of indigenous issues including native title amendments, the "stolen generation" and inequalities in housing, education and health. The 18-member committee has combined an "urgent" investigation of Australia with the presentation of the Federal Government's routine two-yearly report on efforts to combat racial discrimination. Last year, the committee put Australia "on notice" because of concerns that Canberra was breaching its international treaty obligations on human rights. This meant that Australia was the first Western signatory to the convention to be called before the committee to explain itself. The blemish has bracketed Australia with countries such as Algeria, Bosnia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia. Mr Ruddock declined an invitation from one of the committee members, Egypt's Mr Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, to apologise for past injustices to Aborigines. Instead, he outlined measures taken by the Government to acknowledge the "hurt and trauma" of past practices. Later, Mrs Gay McDougall, the Washington-based human rights lawyer who monitors Australia on behalf of the committee, took issue with Mr Ruddock on the difficulties facing legislators in a federalist system. "The issue of States' rights has been a perpetual issue in my country," she told him. "It's one we fought a bloody civil war over ... over whether States were free to engage in the abhorrent practice of slavery." Mr Ruddock interjected: "I think I would have fought for that, too." Mrs McDougall replied: "Yes, I would hope that you would have been on the same side as me." This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. -- _________________________________ Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ 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/
