Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4738 ..
MR CORNWELL: Unlike you-although I will withdraw that, if necessary-I do not mind standing up for what I believe in. But never mind the tragic reality not mentioned by these abolitionists. Of course it is no deterrent, and no advocate of the death penalty has ever suggested that it was. This is the straw man that we like to set up.
The second example concerns Aboriginals and the disproportionate number of these people in jail. That is correct. There are a disproportionate number of them in jail. Why? Because they commit more crimes and have fewer opportunities to delay justice than others. It is all very well to talk about this. However the outrage when this statistic is quoted is to infer that our indigenous Australians are somehow in jail due to an abuse of justice, that they should not be there at all, that they are all not guilty.
Mr Wood: Who says that?
Mr Corbell: Ah! They're all guilty!
MR CORNWELL: Seriously, the claim about their disproportionate numbers in jail is not followed up by any rational, reasonable or publicly acceptable alternative. We must come up with something.
Mr Corbell: I think your leader's getting very uncomfortable, Mr Cornwell.
Mr Wood: He's turned around and said, "Shut up and sit down."Listen to him! You'd better quit while you're ahead, Greg.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Order, Mr Wood!
Mr Hargreaves: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I thought I heard the Leader of the Opposition call his colleague a hypocrite, and I would like him to withdraw it.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Settle down. Mr Cornwell has the floor.
MR CORNWELL: The fact is that no rational, reasonable or, indeed, publicly acceptable alternative has been put forward to assist Aboriginal Australians to remain out of jail. It is all very well for people to talk about the disproportionate number of them there, but nobody has come up with an alternative.
The inference is that eventually there should be no penalties at all, firstly perhaps in the case of Aboriginals going to jail. Again, this is stepping away from individual responsibility, which people need to accept. I also suggest an inference of an erosion of justice and of crime and punishment, which one day may spread to everybody. If you doubt this, I will quote from Professor David Flint's The twilight of the elites. It reads:
In the last three decades of the twentieth century expenditure on public order and safety increased by a massive 417.5%, rising from 0.8% GDP to 1.5%. The number of police per 100,000 population rose from under 150 to 237 in 1993,-
Obviously, this is Australia wide-
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .