A Generation Shaped in Jail - Why Mandatory Sentencing Should End

The committee heard how an elderly Aboriginal couple in a remote camp taught troublemakers Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal skills useful to their daily lives and the community. They are kept far from the scourge of alcohol or petrol. The woman explained that the people at her centre were given meals "with love". Her approach, which involves compassion and rehabilitation, is fundamental to the more constructive alternatives that must be developed.

The instant West Australian and Northern Territory rebuff to the letter on Monday from the Federal Attorney- General, Daryl Williams, seeking change, indicates that overriding legislation by the national Parliament is the only solution.

I have no doubt that the High Court would uphold such legislation to reassert the provisions of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by Australia in 1990, which the West Australian and Northern Territory laws subsequently overrode.

Laudably, in this Olympic year, the Prime Minister has made reconciliation one of his Government's goals. Removing the impact of mandatory sentencing from indigenous communities is a beginning well within the Government’s rights and powers.

While John Howard awaits the Senate Committee report on mandatory sentencing, he might read the evidence already made public. I cannot get out of my mind the story that Selwyn Hausman, a solicitor to the Miwatj Aboriginal Legal Service, told the Senate committee in Darwin two weeks ago. An Aboriginal boy facing mandatory sentencing for, among other things, stealing Textas, had pleaded with him, "I do not want to go to jail." The boy seemed unable to understand the Territory laws closed all options.

"Do you understand why you are going to jail and why you have been convicted?" Hausman asked him. "Yes, because I am black," the boy replied. A week later that boy, Johnno, was dead.

No future debate over apologies will redress the collective culpability this time round if we allow this generation of indigenous Australians, which is seeking an end to past injustices, instead becomes the jailed generation.