Fed: Hawke joins criticism of NT mandatory sentencing laws

AAP General News (Australia)
02-14-2000
Fed: Hawke joins criticism of NT mandatory sentencing laws

MELBOURNE, Feb 14 AAP - Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke today joined the calls for
the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws to be reviewed after the death in custody
of a 15-year-old boy.

"You've got to be a very, very thick-skinned, hard-nosed sort of person, I would think,
not to say we need to have another look at these laws," Mr Hawke said.

"Anything that can produce a result like that needs review."

Calls for the NT laws to be overturned by the federal government intensified last week
when a 15-year-old boy from Groote Eylandt was found dead in his cell while serving a
28-day mandatory sentence.

He was jailed after he broke into a school and a council and stole stationery and paint
worth less than $100. He also damaged glass louvres at a remote community on Groote Eylandt.

In the Northern Territory, juveniles aged 15 and 16 must be sentenced to 28 days' jail
for a second property offence or attend diversionary programs, though few are available.

Adults face jail for a first offence.

Mr Hawke told ABC radio the NT government should re-examine the laws in the light of
the boy's death.

"Without going to the motives of people who brought in these laws, I would seriously
ask them to say: 'We do need to have another examination of the situation that can produce
this outcome'.

"I hope they will do that."

Australian of the Year Sir Gustav Nossal and indigenous leader Evelyn Scott wept yesterday
as they condemned the mandatory sentencing laws which they blamed for the boy's suicide.

Ms Scott, chairwoman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR), and Sir Gustav,
her deputy, branded a disgrace the Northern Territory laws under which the Groote Eyland
boy who hanged himself last week was taken from his community.

"I don't know how you would explain it to the world if it happened during the Olympic
Games in Sydney," Ms Scott told journalists.

"I can't explain it to myself.

"As a mother and chair of the council, I'm disgusted."

AAP gf/er/arb/bwl

KEYWORD: MANDATORY HAWKE

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.