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' 144= WALZ
FOR MEDIA 29 February 1984
The Prime Minister today sent the following letter to the
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
PRIME MINIS rER
CANBERRA.
The Hon. Paul Everingham, MLA
Chic[ Minister of the Northern Territory
PO Box 3146
DARWIN NT 5794
My dear Chief Minister
I refer to your letter of 15 December 1.983 which was a
response to my letter of 17 November 1983 expressing
concern about aspects of the Northern Territory
Criminal Code.
Our exchange of correspondence has been considered by
the Commonwealth Government. I note that your Government
intends to keep a careful watch on operation of the Code
and that it will consider amendments after twelve months
of its coming into effect. With regard to a number of the
matters raised-in my letter I look forward to continuing
discussions and consideration of the issues in your
subsequent review.
Tnere are, however, four provisions which are of such
concern as, in our view, to warrant immediate action.
The amendments which we most strongly propose are:
Ci) An amendment to section 7 to preserve the
traditional onus of proof in relation to criminal
intent 15y requiring the prosecution to prove
that intent even though the accused was
intoxicated;
( ii) Amendments to section 383 to replace the term
" fine" by a more appropriate term and to delete
the sub-section which allows imprisonment or
release on bail after acquittal;
( iii) An amendment to sectio. 51 to permit an organisatiOn
to show cause before a judicial authority as to why
it should not be proscribed or to permit judicial
review of any proscription; and
( iv) An amendment to section 360 conferring a discretion
on the Courts to permit the making of an unsworn
dock statement in cases where, due to the cultural
background of the accused resul1. tinq in communi cat inons
difficulites which cannot be resolved by the u! F; c
of interpreters, it would not be in the intore ; ts
of justice to expose him L-o rross examination. 12
T'aking the prcuvisioCnf Sconcernling LntoxicaI ionl and ( 1)
above) we nave noted your arguments th i. the very high
level of alcohol related crime in the Territory needs to
oe attacked strongly. Nevertheless the_-provisions of the
Code represent very great departures, f rom accepted crimi nal
Law standard, 0S. They raise questions in relation to
Australia's international obligations and muay operate
particularly harshly against Aboriginal people. The need
for the radical departure represented by section 7 would
seem to be obviated by inclusion of section 154 of the Code.
While we understand the basic purpose behind section 383, th. a
notions of a fine and possible imprisonment after acquittal
are alien to our legal heritage and may be seen as inconsistent
with our international obliLgations.
The matter of allowing judicial examination of decisions
to proscribe organisations would seem to be a basic issue
of civil and political rights. Grave consequences may flow
to individuals resulting from operation of the provision
in the Code and the provisions of the Commonwealth Crimes
Act 1914 show that it is not unprecedented for these
matters to be subject to judicial consideration.
our proposed amendment in regard to unsworn dock statements
would seem to be a more appropriate approach to this problem.
It will better allow people of traditional Aboriginal
cultural background to put their case, where it is judged
to be necessary by the Court, while avoiding some of the
problems with unsworn dock statements you have mentioned
in your letter.
Such is the concern held by the Commonwealth Government
about these provisions on the grounds of their departure
from legal standards, implications for our international
obligations and likely harsh effects on Aboriginals that we
are considering advising the Governor-General to recommend
the above amendments to the Administrator pursuant to
-sub-section of the Northern Territory ( Self-Government)
Act 1978
In view of this I should be grateful to recelive a response
to tnis letter within seven day:;.
Yours sincerely
R L_ 1-Jawke