JAIL DRUG DEALERS FOR LIFE: ANDERSON

DRUG dealers are infiltrating Aboriginal communities and forcing children
into prostitution to support their addiction, acting Prime Minister John
Anderson has warned.In an interview with The Australian, the National Party
leader yesterday backed a call by his Queensland branch for state
governments to impose tougher penalties for drug dealing. These should
range all the way up to life sentences for serious offences.

"Where people are actually starting to generate a serious income out of the
misery of children, maybe it is time we got very savage indeed on drug
dealers," he said.

"What sort of human being goes into a country town like Bourke (in western
NSW) and starts peddling drugs so you end up with childhood prostitution so
kids can support their habit?"

Senior Aborigines in Bourke had told him in recent days that children would
not be able to participate in society in future unless they had better
education and were offered hope. Mr Anderson, who took over from John
Howard yesterday while the Prime Minister is on holiday, was responding to
the three challenges of Governor-General William Deane in his speech for
the Centenary of Federation on Monday: environmental damage, the widening
gap between rich and poor and the long distance to travel towards genuine
reconciliation with indigenous people.

Mr Anderson said he had no "major problem" with what he called Sir
William's intervention. "He probably goes a little further than some
governors-general but we know that is what this Governor-General does."

He said the Government was doing a great deal to tackle these problems. The
key to spreading economic opportunity more evenly was sufficiently high
education levels to enable people to participate in the new economy.

"We also have to be very blunt and say there's a group of kids out there
who lack the encouragement and stimulation from the home to really take up
the education opportunities that are there," Mr Anderson said.

"I think that is actually the problem for a lot of our indigenous children.
Unfortunately, I don't think that is a problem governments can solve on
their own.

"I really do worry that with the breakdown of some of our traditional
family values and with the cycle of welfare dependence and sometimes the
despair in Aboriginal communities, you have a certain proportion of young
kids out there who are not going to be in a very strong position to achieve
the Australian dream.

"I think in some ways we are only just beginning that very important battle."

But individual communities like Walgett and Moree in northern NSW, where
white people had previously been reluctant to get involved, were now making
real progress.

"There are some good things happening, but by gee there's a long way to go
yet," Mr Anderson said.

The Howard Government's policy supported small schools such as an
independent Christian school in Wellington in western NSW that sought out
disadvantaged children and gave them special education, he said.

"They've got single Aboriginal mums who are getting $10 a week taken out
through bank debit because they think this is so important."