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CANBERRA, March 24 AAP - A summit of the Australia's attorneys-general today is likely to agree to disagree on a national response to mandatory sentencing, federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams said. He expected a Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting would not resolve the furore over the impact of inflexible sentencing laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia on children and Aborigines. "I expect there will be a robust debate and I don't expect there will be a resolution of the issues as far as any particular point of view is concerned," Mr Williams told journalists yesterday. Victoria will call on his fellow attorneys-general to endorse federal intervention to abolish both the WA and NT regimes. The NT government would probably cooperate with a federal committee searching for alternatives to mandatory sentencing, committee member Brendan Nelson said. Dr Nelson, a Sydney Liberal MP, is one of three government backbenchers who will advise Cabinet on what response should be made to a senate inquiry into the NT and Western Australia's sentencing of children. "In the process of going through this, we might be able to have a look at some of the most brutal aspects of the unintended consequences of mandatory sentencing on those young people who are effected," Dr Nelson told ABC's Lateline. "But in the end, it will be up to the NT government as to whether it chooses to cooperate with us -- and I think it is likely that they will cooperate -- or certainly to revise it's own legislation." NT Chief Minister Denis Burke yesterday conceded the NT's justice system was letting Aborigines down. "I don't believe the justice system serves Aboriginal people particularly well, particularly Aborigines in the NT," he told journalists. |
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