The body warned Lia Finocchiaro against the implementation of measures like incarcerating children
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) has pushed back against new NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s punitive agenda for dealing with crime rates in the state.
“The new Chief Minister has been elected on a platform to reduce crime but her punitive agenda will do the exact opposite,” NATSILS chair Karly Warner said. “Law and order posturing about punishment, power and control has never worked before and it won’t work now. If the stated agenda of the new government proceeds, it will backfire. Chief Minister Finocchiaro will preside over a more dangerous Northern Territory in the months and years ahead”.
Warner expressed concern about the possible de-prioritisation of programs that have successfully limited crime through engaging young people in the community – programs that “have never been properly supported or funded”.
“Putting 10-year-old children in jail, bringing back spit hoods and increasing incarceration won’t stop crime – it will perpetuate the cycle of trauma, violence and government neglect that led us here in the first place. We need to support young people, and their families and communities, not harm them”, she said.
Warner called for the implementation of early intervention and diversionary programs spearheaded by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community-Controlled Organisations.
“Keeping kids locked up leads to horrific outcomes not only for them, but for their communities and families. Our sincere hope and appeal to Chief Minister Finocchiaro is for the new government to pause, sit down with us and local communities and properly understand the things that increase crime, and what can be done to prevent crime, before locking up our children and creating a more dangerous Northern Territory”, she explained.
Finocchiaro was sworn in as chief minister on 28 August. The ex-lawyer is the first woman to be Country Liberal Party NT chief minister.
