ACT assembly votes against mandatory sentencing
By Andrew Hall
CANBERRA — The ACT Legislative Assembly voted on March 1 to condemn the Northern Territory and Western Australia's mandatory sentencing laws and to distance itself from a submission to the Senate inquiry into the laws by ACT chief minister Kate Carnell which opposed federal government intervention.
The stand by the ACT Greens, Labor and independents was warmly received by 100 demonstrators outside the assembly building.
Audrey Ngingali Kinnear from the National Sorry Day Committee best summed up the mood of the crowd when she said: "The mandatory sentencing laws are racist laws without choice and justice, but that's nothing new to Aboriginal people ... No one's rights are safe while these laws are part of the legal system."
Baptist minister Thorwald Lorenzen concluded the rally by saying, "People and human rights are more important than the rights of states."
That evening, the ACT Trades and Labor Council adopted a motion calling on the WA and NT governments to immediately repeal mandatory sentencing laws. The TLC motion urged all affiliated unions to inform and educate their members, and to support all public protests against these laws, including a rally organised by Resistance on March 9.