NT Labor jail 20 year old drug law reform activist

Members of the Network Against Prohibition and their supporters were shocked and saddened at the news that Luke Masters [20] had been sentenced to 15 days jail for his part in a peaceful protest at the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

On the 14th of May last year, 11 people entered the Legislative Assembly to express their concerns over the new “drug house” legislation that was set to be passed by the parliament that month.

The drug house legislation, allows police to declare a house a drug house, place a 1.2 metre fluorescent green sign outside the front of the premises, and raid it without a warrant whenever they choose. Criminal charges do not have to be proven or even laid for a house to be declared.

This draconian piece of legislation sparked outrage from drug users and other community members, some of whom banded together to form the Network Against Prohibition (NAP).

At first, NAP tried mainstream tactics to get their message across. This was to no avail. At the first NAP rally, 50 NT Police Officers attacked the crowd and arrested the event organisers. An attempt at petitioning the NT government also failed, after a copy of the petition was destroyed by the NT Deputy Chief Minister Syd Stirling.

This unprecedented level of harassment and intimidation was behind the entry into parliament of the 11 drug law reform activists.

The protest was peaceful and lasted less than 10 minutes. Luke was one of the last in, and he stayed in the chamber for less than 10 seconds, holding a placard with a drug law reform slogan. He is currently in Berrimah Jail, serving a 15 day sentence for this 10 second incursion.

It seems that NT Legal AID aren’t going to appeal the sentence.

NAP activist Gary Meyerhoff said “This is no surprise as they strongly encouraged Luke to plead guilty in the first place.”

“ I was shocked to hear that Luke had been sentenced to jail when he really played only a minor role in the demonstration.”

“ The NT Government are definitely doing everything they can to cease any criticism of their drug policies. Now they are resorting to jailing a young person for fifteen days for a political protest. Labor should be encouraging young people to get involved in politics.”

“ Who would have thought that Clare Martin’s Labor Government would move further to the right of Denis Burke’s Country Liberal Party.”

“Voters in the Katherine By-election should definitely think twice before giving their vote to the Labor candidate today.”

Five other activists involved in the “Parliament Invasion” have been sentenced to 21 months jail, with 5 months to serve. The five are currently out on bail and their appeals will be heard in the NT Supreme Court in the last week of November.

For more info call the NAP office on 8942 0570 or see www.napnt.org