Jon Lamb, Darwin
A law and order auction is underway in the Northern Territory, as the Clare Martin Labor government and the Country Liberal Party opposition try to outbid each other on who can be the toughest on crime. Teen curfews, more police, harsher sentences and more prison cells are some of the policies on offer.
With an election looming, the law and order issue has been used as a smokescreen for the failure of the NT government and the CLP to seriously tackle major social problems, especially the ailing health and education systems and other public services. Services for women and youth are in a sorry state and there is a major crisis in Aboriginal health and housing.
Much of the media "discussion" has focused on youth crime and the "itinerant" problem; Aboriginal people, or long-grassers, who live on the streets, parks and reserves of Darwin and other towns. The letters page of the NT News has been increasingly dominated by inflammatory and racist remarks about Aboriginal people, under the cover of dealing with "anti-social behaviour".
The NT Chamber of Commerce has weighed in with the call for tougher policing, especially in the inner city and around Darwin's shopping centres. Chamber of Commerce CEO Graham Poon stated in a press release that one of the "major areas of concern to business" is "itinerant and anti-social behaviour".
To demonstrate its commitment to "get tough" on long-grass people, the NT government approved a police campaign in April to step-up harassment and detention of those involved in "anti-social behaviour" — primarily drinking or being drunk in public (detention for "anti-social behaviour" leapt by 23% for the first three months of this year).
Over a two-week period, "Operation Soarer" resulted in the detention in "protective custody" of more than 1000 people, at a rate of about 72 per day, according to police figures. The crackdown was also timed with preparation for the anticipated record tourist season and the commencement of the Arafura Games.
ABC TV news coverage of the police operation on April 24, which only featured images of Aboriginal people, gave the distinct impression that the cashed-up white drunks that habitually spill-out on to bar-lined Mitchell Street are not the target of this crackdown.
Stricter laws to crackdown on juvenile crime and youth curfews have also been pushed for, despite a decline in crimes most strongly associated with young people, such as theft and property damage.
The Youth Justice Bill introduced into parliament on May 5 calls for home detention, including the installation of monitoring devices, and the doubling of the maximum sentences for offenders who are 15 years and older. The CLP shadow attorney-general, Jodeen Carney, has criticised the Labor Party for introducing a law that "lacks substance".
The CLP has also declared its support for a youth curfew between 10pm and 7am for 16-year-olds and younger.
CLP leader Denis Burke believes that "There needs to be programs to reinforce not only parental responsibility but the consequence not only for the children but for the parents for them being in the situation", he told reporters on May 18.
Such a move is a step towards criminalising the presence of young people in public, already harassed by police and private security officers for gathering at shopping centres and on the street.
CLP spokesperson for youth, Terry Mills, announced on May 25 that if the CLP win the election, young people found guilty of property crimes such as graffiti will be required to wear bright orange shirts with "name and shame" printed in large letters. Mills supports the idea — which has been ridiculed by criminal layers as a half-baked crackpot idea — because he belives that "by unleashing the potential of shame it can actually result in rehabilitation".
As a consequence of the Labor government's "tough on crime" stance, NT prisons are filling up beyond capacity. A projected $8 million will be spent on increasing capacity at the Darwin Correctional Centre's minimum-security section by an extra 80 to 150 prisoners. The CLP supports the creation of a new prison facility.
The NT continues to have the highest imprisonment rate in Australia, with an average of 532 of every 100,000 adults in prison — a rate three times higher than the rest of Australia and one that has been steadily climbing for the last 16 years. Around 80% of people in prison in the NT are Aboriginal.
While the Labor government is intent on forking out millions of dollars to fund more police and more prison cells, it seems incapable and unwilling to resolve chronic health problems among Aboriginal people. Aboriginal children in the NT, for example, are 120 times more likely to suffer from malnutrition than non-Indigenous children.
The policies on offer from both the Labor Party and the CLP represent an intensification of the racist scapegoating of Aboriginal people and the further marginalising of the serious problems affecting Aboriginal communities in the NT.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, June 1, 2005.
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