Salvete amicis,
When we married, Wendy’s father gave us a Holden Ute (remember those?). In 1967 we were pulled up in Geelong. You know that old adage: “Ignorance of the law….”
The vehicle was registered as a ‘primary producer’s vehicle’ (at a reduced rate) and could legally only be driven from Wendy’s parents’ home to and from Wendy’s father’s farm near Casterton.
Thus started our crime spree. Being mostly absent from Victoria during the Nickel Boom, summonses to appear in court reached us too late and eventually we ended up as fugitives in Canada.
In 1973, children in Wendy’s class were quite excited when a policeman, unannounced, knocked on the open door of the classroom. “Why is Nangala Mrs. Baarda in trouble?” “Nyarrpa jarija?”(What did she do?”) they buzzed.
The long arm of the law had at last caught up with Wendy. A Papunya policeman had come to collect the long overdue fine. Wendy paid the modest fine and that was the end of the matter.
A lot of water has since flown under the bridge and drastic changes have taken place in policing, not least in its pervasiveness. Indigenous Australia has born the brunt of the increased reach of the long arm of the law.
But just as the situation seems to have reached a new low, we are bamboozled into new hope.
The Council of Attorneys Generals (CAG) were to meet soon and media speculation was that they would change the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 (from children to older children).
The Government touted that the Closing the Gap initiative would be redesigned with for the first time consultation and agreement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait representative bodies.
On 27th July CAG held their meeting and reported that the Age of Criminal Responsibility Working Group had “… identified the need for further work to occur regarding the need for adequate processes and services for children who exhibit offending behaviour…”
Call me cynical but in my opinion the CAG have exhibited offending behaviour.
On 30th July in a media release Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new Closing the Gap agreement is an historic achievement.
This excited me so much I delved deeper and am pleased to tell you all about some of the new targets:
Target 10: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15%
Target 11: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10-17 years) held in incarceration by at least 30%
I’m not particularly worried about Clause 144 of the agreement, which tells me the agreement is not legally enforceable. I’ve been assured in the media release that all parties to the agreement intend to do their best, which is good enough for me, particularly coming from the political party that introduced core and non-core promises to the Australian political landscape.
A few weeks ago an important Warlpiri man and friend was flown to Adelaide Hospital in a serious condition. One of his grandsons was appointed as his official minder.
At the same time as PM Morrison was telling us the good news, our friend’s 23 year old grandson was spotted smoking in Rundle Mall. In Yuendumu the smoking ban in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall has not exactly received a lot of publicity. The grandson was duly questioned by a policeman and it turns out that on a previous occasion when he was in South Australia (Port Augusta) he’d been fined for a traffic offence. Despite the fact that he thought the fine had been paid off (it turned out he still owed $200) he was locked up.
But he needn’t despair, the Closing the Gap mob are going to reduce incarceration of Yapa adults by at least 1.5% per year.
Vide te mox
Franciscus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffhyh5xZ0jE
Kenny Rogers- The Long Arm of the Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTffIe76l-4
Lucky Dube- Prisoner (Lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxgIwXo_qt8
Lajamanu Teenage Band- Prisoner