LL:ART: New Qld laws suppress human rights

[Communist Party of Australia]

The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
August 16th, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
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New Qld laws suppress human rights

It's "Clayton's" mandatory sentencing! Under the Queensland Labor
Government's proposed new legislation, the Corrective Services
Bill 2000, the role of judges and magistrates in determining
appropriate sentencing will be severely limited, and the right of
the press to report on the imprisonment of Aboriginal people is
to be eliminated.

The legislation, which embodies the worst aspects of the Western
Australian and Northern Territory mandatory sentencing regimes
and the Federal Government's illegal immigrant's policies, allows
for prisoners to be released from prison without rehabilitation
or support.

Mr Ian Delaney, State Coordinator of the Queensland Aboriginal
and Islander Legal Services Secretariat (QAILLS) commented:
"Queenslanders will end up paying more taxes to build prisons,
and ... run the prisons. Perhaps even worse, prisoners will be
released into the suburbs without proper rehabilitation having
been provided, and no help to stop their re-offending behaviour,
thereby exposing the community to greater risk."

The legislation would also strip magistrates and judges of the
power to determine appropriate sentencing for those charged with
offences incurring penalties of less than two years imprisonment.

Mr Delaney stated: "With the power of judges and magistrates
taken away in this fashion, what you are left with is a situation
tantamount to another form of mandatory sentencing."

He added that the timing of the legislation, to coincide with the
Olympics, was not a coincidence.

Yes, it's mandatory sentencing in all but name -- and with
restrictions on press freedom thrown in.

Newspapers reporting Aboriginal rates of incarceration and
matters relating to imprisonment of Aboriginal people (for
example, deaths in custody) are to be prosecuted under the new
laws.

This obviously has major implications for the administration of
law in Australia, because if Australian governments succeed in
suppressing comments regarding Aboriginal imprisonment, it's just
a matter of time before they attempt to suppress criticism of any
sort.

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