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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 417 ..
MS TUCKER (11.36): I move:
That this Assembly condemns and dissociates itself from the ACT Government submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee inquiry into mandatory sentencing laws because of the submission's failure to acknowledge that these laws:
(1) are racially discriminatory in effect;
(2) are inconsistent with recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which the Commonwealth and all States and Territories have agreed to implement;
(3) are inconsistent with the goal of reconciliation with indigenous people, which the Commonwealth and all States and Territories have agreed to;
(4) may be in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and
(5) are manifestly unjust because they take away the possibility of individual circumstances being taken into account by magistrates and judges and alternative socially constructive rehabilitation options being pursued.
Mr Speaker, I have a feeling that my speech is going to go over time. Could I seek leave from the Assembly to speak without limitation of time?
Leave granted.
MS TUCKER: Last November the ACT Government put a submission to the Senate inquiry into mandatory sentencing laws. I reject the manifestly unjust position this submission takes. It basically puts states rights above human rights. In refusing to discuss mandatory sentencing laws, it refuses to discuss a fundamental human rights issue which has tragic and significant implications for the indigenous people of this country. Like many people in our community, I am shocked at the mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia and at the recent death of a child in detention for stealing textas and paints.
The response of the Northern Territory and Western Australia to complex social problems is brutal and frightening. The response of our Prime Minister and the Chief Minister is reprehensible. I was not consulted on this matter and, as far as I know, neither were other non-government members of this place. As far as I know, neither were the people of the ACT. I acknowledge that the Government has a right to put its
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