Greens accuse NT govt of ‘marking their own homework’ over new prisons plan

By PETER ROWE

Greens Senator Dorinda Cox has called out the new Northern Territory government’s Corrections Infrastructure Plan as another attack on Indigenous people in the Territory, saying their plans to build and ‘expand the pipeline of incarceration’ will do nothing to Close the Gap.

Senator Cox, a proud Yamatji Noongar woman, said she was worried about the future under CLP and LNP governments.

“We are seeing an alarming trend of Coalition LNP State and Territory Governments being elected on the “tough on crime” platform led by Mr Dutton the former Queensland cop,” she said.

“First Peoples are extremely distressed as they watch the rising incarceration of their children and young people, resulting in unacceptable rates of deaths in custody.”

Senator Cox said the Albanese Labor Government should rein in State governments by stopping the Closing the Gap funding to the NT and QLD, until they are able to demonstrate and adhere to the reforms outlined in the National Partnership Agreements.

Northern Territory Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley (L) and Northern Territory Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley. (AAP Image/(A)manda Parkinson)

“They need to urgently implement and expand the Justice Reinvestment approach they were elected on to counter this inhumane approach in the NT,” she said.

Senator Cox accused the new NT Minister for Corrective Services, Gerard Maley, of marking his own homework by visiting all the NT correctional and youth justice facilities, before the commencement of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Senate inquiry into Youth Justice.

The Greens spokesperson for Justice, Senator David Shoebridge, supported Senator Cox’s view, criticising the CLP approach in the Territory.

“Building children’s prisons isn’t a vision for a better world or a safer society, it’s just more expensive and brutal scapegoating of vulnerable young people,” he said.

“It’s time for the Federal Government to draw a line in the sand on the harm being inflicted by some State and Territory Governments on young people.

“The safest communities aren’t the ones with the most police or people being sent to prison. It’s time to start funding the alternatives to prison that all the experts say are needed.”