Frontline workers in the Northern Territory are pushing back against the Country-Liberal Party’s destructive “tough on crime” policies.
Months of organising from frontline workers across different sectors have managed to gather 170 signatures on an opposing mandatory sentencing on workplace safety grounds.
The CLP made three months’ imprisonment a mandatory sentence for assaulting, or spitting on, a frontline worker last October.
Mandatory sentencing removes a judge’s discretion in sentencing; they have to send an individual to jail without regard to their medical, family or other circumstances.
“We deserve to feel safe at work, and ought to be consulted about how best to achieve this,” the open letter reads. “None of our unions including [United Workers Union] UWU NT, [Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation] ANMF NT, [Australian Education Union] AEU NT, or [Australian Medical Association] AMA were made aware of this law, despite its supposed purpose being to improve workplace safety.”
Frontline workers say that people who assault or spit “may be experiencing acute mental illness or some form of poor impulse control, often related to history of trauma”.
They argue that there are “ways to improve workplace safety that do not criminalise mental illness and social disadvantage”.
Frontline workers are mandated by a code of ethics that require them to advocate for the safety of their clients. They the CLP’s mandatory sentencing policy places them in a difficult situation.
“Given the current prison system is unsafe for children and adults and those experiencing acute medical conditions, including psychiatric disorders, it would conflict with our code of ethics to report these incidents knowing they could result in the imprisonment of many of our most vulnerable clients,” the letter said.
Since the CLP came to power, prisoner numbers in the NT have reached a record high. Conditions inside prisons are so bad that have been made to the United Nations. The overwhelming majority of NT prisoners are First Nations people.
The open letter highlights that the NT has the highest re-offending rate in the country, with the NT’s own Law Reform Committee that mandatory sentencing does not lead to any long-term reduction in crime.
Frontline workers said they “reject the CLP Government’s attempt to use our workplace circumstances to push their agenda to increase criminalisation and incarceration rates”.
Justine Davis, Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly, read the open letter to parliament on March 26. “Mandatory sentencing is not good policy, and it does not reduce crime. It only adds more strain to our prison system, which we know is already on the brink of collapse.
“The CLP approach to the safety issues in our communities is consistently not evidence based, and this is another example of that. These workers are understandably upset, and I implore this parliament to listen to the people you are supposedly creating laws for and stand with frontline workers who are working for all of us every day,” Davis said.