Fed: Mandatory sentencing a vexed issue: Howard

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2000
Fed: Mandatory sentencing a vexed issue: Howard

CANBERRA, Feb 15 AAP - Mandatory sentencing laws in Western Australia and the Northern
Territory were not sufficiently unfair to justify the commonwealth overriding them, according
to Prime Minister John Howard.

But Mr Howard said that where the laws applied to youths, there was cause for concern.

"I don't think it sufficiently serious for the commonwealth to intervene in relation
to mandatory sentencing laws as such," he told the Nine Network.

"I guess I'm a little bit troubled at the ones that relate to people under the age of 18."

Mr Howard said the question of mandatory sentencing was a difficult issue.

"If you live in a high crime-rate area, you'll support mandatory sentencing.

"On the other hand, I think everybody's just distressed at the suicide of a boy of 15.

"The attorney-general is writing to the Territory and the state of Western Australia
regarding that."

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission raised the prospect of United
Nations or Amnesty International intervention if the government did not act following
a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy's suicide in a Darwin detention centre last week.

Mr Howard said the commonwealth would not normally intervene in state and territory law-making.

"We don't normally want to be interfering in these things unless there are compelling
circumstances."

AAP daw/it

KEYWORD: MANDATORY HOWARD

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.