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Howse, Chris --- "State and Territory Implementation of the Recommendations of the Royal Commission: Northern Territory" [2001] IndigLawB 32; (2001) 5(8) Indigenous Law Bulletin 9

State and Territory Implementation of the Recommendations of the Royal Commission –

Northern Territory

by Chris Howse

J’accuse! I wish I could be Emile Zola for a while just to say what needs to be said about the Territory’s abysmal responses to the Royal Commission’s report. First up, take a look at the graph of the daily average number of adult prisoners in the Northern Territory jails.[1]

Information to hand demonstrates that more than two thirds of the people shown locked up here each year, over the past 10 years, are Aboriginal.[2] Notice that the recommendations of the Royal Commission were handed down in 1991. The idea was to reduce the overwhelming over-representation of Aboriginals in custody. Well, it has got worse here since. Much worse. Meanwhile, the NT Government has persisted in a mandatory sentencing law which has seen hundreds of Aboriginal people go to jail. Yet Recommendation 92 of the report says:

Governments which have not already done so should legislate to enforce the principle that imprisonment should be utilised as a sanction of last resort.

Can you believe that the NT Government says it supports that recommendation? This would suggest a somewhat hypocritical stance.

But let me give you another example. Recommendation 168 says that Aboriginal people ought to be kept in the jail closest to where their family live. Common sense suggests that if a man’s family can’t visit him it will affect his rehabilitation somewhat, especially if it’s for 3 years plus. Anyhow, the NT Government has been transferring Top End Aboriginal prisoners in large numbers down to Alice Springs jail, 1500 kilometres south of Darwin, contrary to Recommendation 168 and effectively cutting them off from their families. But on page 77 of its 1992/93 report on implementation progress, the NT Government reported that Recommendation 168 was implemented and that ‘occasionally prisoners are moved to another institution for their own safety.’ Last year, the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee (NT) brought an action in the Supreme Court to challenge large scale transfers of Aboriginal prisoners.[3] We won. The Court held that this was being done contrary to law and the Department of Correctional Services had to tighten up its procedures.

Another challenge has been brought in the last two months by the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service.[4] The matter is presently under appeal. But the NT Government has introduced a bill presently before parliament which purports to oust the jurisdiction of the Courts in appealing transfer decisions. The Minister for Correctional Services, Mr. Manzie said in the second reading speech:

Such transfers subject to protracted, frustrating and expensive hurdles imposed by persons who have been found guilty of an offence against the community and because of the severity of the offence have had their liberty withdrawn by the proper authorities. This government will not be dictated to by such persons. The government expects that once a person has been found guilty and placed in prison, the Director of Correctional Services will have the ability to control the prisoner and deliver an efficient and effective prison system.[5]

Recently a prisoner who appealed unsuccessfully against transfer died in Alice Springs jail of what seem to be natural causes.

The lesson of the amendment introduced by Minister Manzie, if I read it correctly, is that administrative expediency is above the right to go to Court, perhaps even above human life. But I am willing to bet that the chief discernable result of passing this amendment in the wake of the recent death will be a rush of further court action by ourselves and people like us who disagree with government priorities.

Recommendations 92 and 168 are not the only ones the Government of the Northern Territory has said it supports, and then ridden roughshod over. But they will suffice to give some justification for the need to stand up and say, j’accuse!

Chris Howse is an Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Justice Advocacy Committee (Northern Territory).


[1] Northern Territory Government, Northern Territory Correctional Services Annual Report 1999-2000, 89.

[2] Ibid 47. See also Northern Territory Government, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (northern territory Government Implementation Report) 1996/97, 131.

[3] Wesley v Moore & Others (Unreported, Northern Territory Supreme Court, 1999).

[4] Christine Joseph Casey v The Department of Family and Community Services and Others. (Unreported, Northern Territory Supreme Court, 2001). Appeal Pending.

[5] Northern Terro\itory, Hansard, Legislative Assembly, 29 may 2001 (Mr Manzie, Minister for Correctional Services).

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