Ms CARNEY - 2002-10-09
Next week your government intends to unveil plans for the integration of traditional Aboriginal law into the justice system. Do you intend to include acceptance of Aboriginal men having sex with children?
Dr TOYNE: Could you repeat the last part of the question, please?
Ms CARNEY: Do you intend to include acceptance of Aboriginal men having sex with children?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because I can talk about what we intend to do about the problems caused by the two systems of law that do co-exist within the Northern Territory.
It is fair to say that our courts operate in a very difficult environment where what is proscribed in one system of law can be acceptable in another system of law. Be that as it may, both systems of law exist in reality in the Northern Territory and, quite rightly, our Chief Magistrate and our Chief Justice insist on the magistracy and judiciary having full discretion in their courts to try and deal with these issues that occur in the boundary between the two systems of law.
We do not believe that that system should carry on, despite the fact that, under the previous government, we have known about these problems in terms of how offences are dealt with under the two different cultures. I remember the Statehood Committee undertaking an extensive study of the options of including customary law elements in the overall constitution of the Northern Territory.
What we will be doing about it is we will be progressing an inquiry as to what problems are occurring at that boundary between the two systems of law. We will be doing that systematically and through an expert body. What we will be doing, alongside that, is to progress the very promising initiatives under Aboriginal law and justice within our remote communities which will allow traditional people, the elders, and people from our justice system and other government service delivery areas to sit down and negotiate a position that is mutually acceptable and can be held within formal and orderly arrangements rather than having the hand of fate determining some of the detail of what has happened to date.
We know this is a problematic area. The member for Macdonnell quite rightly brought that to the attention of this House in his adjournment last night. I believe that we do have to do some systematic and focussed work on this area and, for once, let’s see if we can achieve some certainty in terms of how cultural and customary law matters are dealt with within our community.
Dr TOYNE: Could you repeat the last part of the question, please?
Ms CARNEY: Do you intend to include acceptance of Aboriginal men having sex with children?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because I can talk about what we intend to do about the problems caused by the two systems of law that do co-exist within the Northern Territory.
It is fair to say that our courts operate in a very difficult environment where what is proscribed in one system of law can be acceptable in another system of law. Be that as it may, both systems of law exist in reality in the Northern Territory and, quite rightly, our Chief Magistrate and our Chief Justice insist on the magistracy and judiciary having full discretion in their courts to try and deal with these issues that occur in the boundary between the two systems of law.
We do not believe that that system should carry on, despite the fact that, under the previous government, we have known about these problems in terms of how offences are dealt with under the two different cultures. I remember the Statehood Committee undertaking an extensive study of the options of including customary law elements in the overall constitution of the Northern Territory.
What we will be doing about it is we will be progressing an inquiry as to what problems are occurring at that boundary between the two systems of law. We will be doing that systematically and through an expert body. What we will be doing, alongside that, is to progress the very promising initiatives under Aboriginal law and justice within our remote communities which will allow traditional people, the elders, and people from our justice system and other government service delivery areas to sit down and negotiate a position that is mutually acceptable and can be held within formal and orderly arrangements rather than having the hand of fate determining some of the detail of what has happened to date.
We know this is a problematic area. The member for Macdonnell quite rightly brought that to the attention of this House in his adjournment last night. I believe that we do have to do some systematic and focussed work on this area and, for once, let’s see if we can achieve some certainty in terms of how cultural and customary law matters are dealt with within our community.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016