DARWIN — On March 11, a by-election will be held in the seat of Port Darwin following the resignation of Shane Stone, former Northern Territory chief minister and the architect of the NT's notorious mandatory sentencing legislation. ANDY GOUGH is the Territory Greens' candidate for the seat. DAVE MURPHY spoke to Gough about the issues the Greens are raising in the campaign.
Question: What is wrong with mandatory sentencing?
It is difficult to look at mandatory sentencing in isolation, because it is not just one issue. The law removes the discretion of the magistrate to determine an appropriate sentence. It targets property crime as the root of all evil.
There are no freedom of information laws in the NT that allow public access to government figures and documents. Therefore, it has been incredibly hard for anybody, including the NT government, to come up with accurate statistics to show whether or not mandatory sentencing is working, and who it is affecting.
The Northern Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service has produced a report into who has been hit by mandatory sentencing. Over and over again, it is Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are more than 70% of the NT prison population — where is the justice in that?
Mandatory sentencing shows that the ruling Country Liberal Party (CLP) is not interested in reconciliation. It is not interested in doing anything to support Aboriginal people. It just sweeps them under the carpet. It sees them as an expense and an impediment to business.
The CLP government has not spent money on an interpreter service for Aboriginal people. If you speak any international language you can get an interpreter in court within half an hour. If you're an Aboriginal person, that service does not exist.
As a result, Aboriginal people are going to jail without understanding why. They might have some idea, but they don't understand the legal process and they don't understand what the magistrate has said in their ruling. In a lot of instances, they don't even know the length of the term of their imprisonment.
Question: Do the Territory Greens have alternative solutions to crime?
It comes down to education and health projects like the "Living with alcohol" program. These services need more funding and need to be more effective. We need to look at prevention, as opposed to this government's draconian, lock-'em-up, police-state mentality.
Question: Why has the leader of the NT Labor Party opposition, Clare Martin, rejected federal government intervention to change the mandatory sentencing laws?
Because in her mind it's a vote loser. The ALP calls itself an opposition but it is not. To a lesser extent than the CLP, Martin is pandering to the electorate because she believes the community will be upset if the federal government overturns the laws.
There is absolutely no way that the ALP is going to have a say in overturning these laws because the CLP won't budge. When parliament resumed, Martin moved a motion to repeal mandatory sentencing. It was voted down 18 to seven.
We have 18 CLP members in the parliament and seven Labor members in opposition. That's an absolute mandate for the CLP to do whatever it likes. Particularly when, besides Martin, there are no longer any strong performers in the Labor Party.
Question: Why is the opposition in parliament so weak?
The Labor Party is fearful of directly opposing government policies, they fear it will be unpopular and will not win votes.
Question: Does CLP electoral support justify not opposing mandatory sentencing?
No. It doesn't matter how popular a law is if it is unethical.
The imbalance of representation in parliament could be resolved if we had proportional representation to elect the legislative assembly. The difficulty is that it is up to the government to decide what electoral system is used, and it will always use the system that strengthens its power.
Question: How will you be effective in creating change in the NT?
The only way to do it is from within. The Territory Greens brought the issue of mandatory sentencing to the attention of Senator Bob Brown, he put forward the [Mandatory Sentencing of Juvenile Offenders Bill] in federal parliament on our behalf.
That is why I'm standing. It is my responsibility to back that up in the electorate.
I will be an independent. I can speak up against, and bring to media attention, anything that is unjust. I will offer alternatives to the current corrupt system.