PARIAH were at the forefront of the anti-Mandatory sentencing campaign and were vindicated in this struggle, when the Country Liberal Party lost the next election after an uninterrupted 26 years of power.

Obviously such an unprecedented win, riding on the back of the Mandatory sentencing campaign, gave NT Labor a strong mandate to deal with the racist neglect that black incarceration rates represent...

"PARIAH expected better from the NT ALP, but had reservations, given the social and political climate here"

"Whereas an investigation into political corruption in the NT and the installation of truly independent investigative bodies would change much and ensure that the NT Labor Party did not simply slip into the CLP's electoral robes." - (Mandatory Sentencing Senate Inquiry Submission from PARIAH -- 31 July, 2001)
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/legcon_ctte/hra_mandsent/submissions/sub39.htm

Mick Lambe: PARIAH - People Against Racism In Aboriginal Homelands
Submitted on behalf of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, fellow "White Trash" and George Martin - an invalid pensioner who was brutally murdered after NT Police and local bigots forced him out of their community.

...We were right to assume the possibility that the NT ALP would don the CLP's electoral robes, albeit with their own distinctive spin.

Once again PARIAH is at the forefront, pushing up the issue of Aboriginal incarceration rates.
We owe no allegiance to a State which depends on oppressing Aboriginal people to enrich and expand their racist and corrupt system.

NT News -- January 5, 2004 -- no author credited

The Northern Territory Opposition is calling on the Government to explain what it describes as a sharp rise in the number of Aboriginal people in jail.

The CLP says Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the ratio of Indigenous Territorians in prison is 11.3 to every non-Indigenous person.

Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister John Elferink says the ratio was 5.1 when the CLP left office in 2001.

"What we've got is a Government that has an incarceration rate which has doubled in comparison to the general community for Indigenous people," he said.

"They were very critical of our sentencing practices and the result that Indigenous people went to jail.

"If they're critical of us then they've got some serious questions to ask themselves."

Mr Elferink says the CLP is currently forming a new policy on Indigenous imprisonment.

"We are currently looking at models from all over the world and seeing which would be best suited to us," Mr Elferink said.

"If there isn't a model for us, we will develop a policy which will protect Territorians and will make sure that incarceration rates are better than they are now."