PM HOLDS FIRM ON MANDATORY JAIL

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, has declared he is personally
opposed to mandatory sentencing, but has hardened his stance against
forcing the Northern Territory or Western Australia to ditch their
mandatory jailing laws.

In an interview with The Age, Mr Howard predicted that the United
Nations would not make a legal finding that the Territory or WA laws
were against human rights or the rights of the child, so the
Commonwealth would not be required to use its external powers to
settle the matter.

"I think most people take the view that it's an issue that should be
resolved by state or territory governments," he said.

Mr Howard accused his critics of hypocrisy, saying commentators wanted
him to use the Commonwealth's external powers to overturn mandatory
sentencing, but would be against him if he tried to impose the same
powers to force states such as Victoria to abandon legal heroin
injecting rooms.

"I don't agree with (injecting rooms) either," he said.

"The social commentators agree with injecting rooms - most of them do
- - and I don't read leader writers each day or even each week urging me
to use the external powers to overturn the Victorian Government's
decision on injecting rooms.

"So it's not a question of principle or leadership - it's really a
question of attitude on a particular issue.

"On the role of state governments, I have been consistent. I am saying
that even though I object to injecting rooms, I am not going to use
the external affairs power."

Mr Howard said the only way state or territory mandatory sentencing
laws could be overturned would be "if there were a clear and
overwhelming legal view that it was a breach of our international
conventions".

Asked what would happen if the UN declared the laws were in breach of
international conventions, Mr Howard said: "I don't think they're
delivering a legal opinion ... In the end, it will be resolved by
Australians within Australia."

His comments were made in an interview last Friday - the day before
The Age revealed that Australian officials had been lobbying the UN's
human rights office in New York to ensure it brought down a "soft"
report on mandatory sentencing.

The effort to win a toned-down report included warnings to the office
of the Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, that her report
could have political consequences in Australia.

Mrs Robinson's spokesman, Mr Jose Diaz, has played down the status of
the pending report, saying it was only a "reference document on
mandatory sentencing".

The poor health of Aborigines was a major impediment to
reconciliation, the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia said
yesterday.

"Reconciliation must involve a sense of people being equal and being
treated as equal," the council's president, Professor Ian Webster,
said.

There was an urgent need for a fully-funded national policy framework
for indigenous substance abuse, the council said.