Stuart talks to 3CR on his recent unlawful incarceration

Transcript of interview by Stuart Highway on 3CR Melbourne community radio.

Marisa: Hello and welcome to the SUWA (Squatters and Unwaged Workers Airwaves) show. Tonight in the studio there is Marisa…

Chris: … And Chris

Marisa: And Chris, there you are Chris I thought you’d disappeared on me. We’ve got Stuart Highway online who’s going to be talking about his role in NAP which is an activist involving fighting the drug house laws and I’ll let you talk to, listeners talk to you about this, so we’ll just introduce him now, hello Stuart.

Stuart Highway: Hello.

Marisa: How are you?

Stuart Highway: I’m fine thanks, how are you?

Marisa: Good, good, thanks so much for coming onto the show and I’m amazed you’ve survived after your ordeal.

Stuart Highway: Oh it’s not that bad, I mean, there’s still plenty of people in prison who shouldn’t be there.

Marisa: That’s right, and Peter’s with you too, one of our radio broadcasters and presenters is actually in Darwin with Stuart as we speak so

Stuart Highway: That’s right.

Marisa: …regards to Peter. So, Stuart would you like to start off just by telling listeners an overview of your activist experiences and the NAP group that you belong Stuart just so that we can set the scene for what’s just happened?

Stuart Highway: Well there, NAP stands Network Against Prohibition and we were formed in 2002 as a response to the Northern Territory Labor Government’s drug house laws which were draconian, over the top crackdown on people who use illicit drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy and people had gone through the proper channels making submissions to government committees and basically been fobbed off and ignored and, so we just decided to get militant and in 2002 we did a whole series of actions, one of which was storming the NT Parliament in Darwin on 14th of May 2002 and for that we get sentenced to five months jail last year in June and we’ve been out on bail ever since appealing that decision and a couple of weeks ago the police executed a warrant on three of us and put us in jail for, locked us up for two days by mistake because our appeal has only been partly heard. So, we have to, we got out after contacting the Ombudsman and people outside and people in Melbourne agitated and spoke to people in Darwin and when the mistake was realised they let us out and we’ve still got a full bench, a supreme court full bench appeal to be heard, that will probably be next year, we haven’t had a date for that yet and also we’re appealing the sentence because five months it’s a bit of ridiculous a lot of, most people, most Territorians think it’s over the top. All we did was, they didn’t have the doors of parliament locked so we pushed them and they were unlocked so we walked in and did a protest in there. We upset the politicians, I think that’s why they upset us, that’s why they were angry at us and also we’ve shown no remorse for our so-called crime, that’s another reason. Out of nine charged for that, three pleaded guilty but there’s one guy, his case hasn’t been heard yet because he moved to Tasmania and he’s had a phone link, he’s been working in a mine in Western Australia and he’s had appeals in the supreme court this morning in Darwin by phone link to set up trial dates for next year and the rest of us, yeah, we support each other and we’ve had a lot of support from other people, like in Melbourne the Anarchist Black Cross has been terrific. Peter is up here at the moment and we really appreciate their support and we support other people there is just that many people in prison, I mean particularly in America, this all comes from the US, this so-called war on drugs, 2.1 million people in prison over there, 1.2 million are in there, in prison for cannabis offences and it’s ridiculous, so it’s all this prohibition and all these laws they haven’t stopped anyone using drugs…

Marisa: What…

Stuart Highway: … all it does is drive the prices up.

Marisa: What do you think could be some of the alternative ways that could assist people, that could make things better?

Stuart Highway: Well, legalise drugs for a start and then we then we can bring the problems associated with these illicit drugs out into the open where they can be dealt with rationally and sensibly, like the legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol are dealt with, they tried eradicating them and that didn’t work and it’s not going to work with all these other illicit drugs either, heroin, cannabis and what have you and, you know we have to look at why are people, if there’s problematic drug use why is that happening, what are the backgrounds? What makes people get into drug abuse and get into problems? You know, the social question and it’s a medical question rather than a criminal question. It’s no use locking people up, if anything it makes the problem worse and it’s, all the illicit drug use, because it’s illegal it’s in the hands of criminals and corrupt police and corrupt governments, it just causes all this corruption, I think a lot of people in the law enforcement community are realising it’s a futile battle trying to stop illicit drugs because you know, there’s demand so there will be a supply as well, there’s plenty of money to be made, supplying these drugs.

Marisa: That’s right. Hey Stuart, you’ve actually given an excellent overview of all that and moving on from there and while we’re on the subject of police and government corruption can you just describe the circumstances of the fact that you were imprisoned because I understand that you were falsely arrested and imprisoned, well not just yourself but also Gary…

Stuart Highway: Meyerhoff.

Marisa: and…

Stuart Highway: Rob Inder-Smith.

Marisa: And yourself, there were three of you…

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: So, can you just describe those circumstances as to why were you falsely arrested and imprisoned?

Stuart Highway: Well, apparently there was a, there’d been a warrant issued on the 4thh of October and on Monday the 1st of November, I just, it was late at night about a quarter past ten or ten thirty, I just thought I’ll go out for a walk just around where I live in Nightcliff in the northern suburbs of Darwin and, I thought I’d just go out for a walk and stretch my legs and get some fresh air and, just five minutes or ten minutes and I went out and saw these headlights in a car park in a disused supermarket and I went over to see what it was, what was going on and there was a police van there with, and there was some longgrass, homeless people, they’re called longgrass people in Darwin and, mostly aboriginal people and half a dozen longgrass people there were being harassed by police. I just bent down to tie up my shoe lace and next thing the police saw me and they said Stuart Highway? Are you Stuart Highway? You’ve got a warrant, and I started to run away, I thought well, but then I stopped, I thought well I haven’t done anything wrong. If you run, the police think you’ve done something wrong, you’ve got something to hide, which I didn’t and, so I stopped and they said your appeal was dismissed why didn’t you hand yourself in? And I didn’t say anything, I wondered what it was about, what are they talking about? So they put me under arrest and harassed the longgrass people a bit more, then they took me into the cells at the police station in the city and I was in the cell by myself and a little while later, another police van turned, came in and it was my friend and co-defendant Rob Inder-Smith and he’d been, they’d gone to his home, unit, also in Nightcliff, after they got me and then, a little bit later a third van turned up and it was Gary Meyerhoff and they’d gone around his place, it was about a quarter to one in the morning by that stage and woken him up and said you’ve got a warrant, come with us, we’ve got a warrant for your imprisonment, he’s saying “no, there’s a mistake, someone made a mistake” and he insisted there’d been a mistake and the police insisted he come with them and so he did, he was gunna put up a bit of a fight at first but then he realised well we don’t wanna stir the neighbours…

Marisa: Laughs…

Stuart Highway: And he’d just been getting over pneumonia, it was pouring with rain so he had no choice but to go with the police. He got in the cells and he was livid, he was wild, he’s saying we’re not supposed to be here, we need a, we demanded a phone call and they wouldn’t let us have a phone call and afterwards they said on the Territory Stateline on TV, ABCTV, that a police boss said we should have been given that phone call and we could have sorted out the mess there and then but someone made a wrong decision, well someone made a, well they issued a warrant in the first place, they didn’t let us have a phone call so then they, the next morning, which was Tuesday morning, second of November, they took us out to the prison, Darwin Correctional Centre and we were processed and I, we were just, still in the reception area and one of the guards came up to me and “oh, there’s a message from Marisa in Melbourne”, and this just blew me anyway, I didn’t, I thought how did she find out so quickly, Marisa in Melbourne, yeah it’s, and he didn’t tell me I had the right to ring her back, I only found out afterwards and he didn’t say you could ring her back but so I didn’t know I could ring anybody or have any visitors or anything but the next day, Wednesday a couple of people came to visit me which is terrific. We were put in the dorm in B block, maximum security which all prisoners, most prisoners they get put into maximum security to get assessed on how they are going to behave themselves and yeah we were in a dormitory with eight beds. To begin with there was no one else in there but it filled up pretty quickly and so we rang up the ombudsman, the Northern Territory ombudsman and said look there’s been a mistake, we’re not supposed to be in prison, our appeals only been part heard and Wednesday night there was an order, a court order for our release so we just got out and it was kind of a strange experience to be suddenly kind of whisked off into prison and then just when it’s sinking in that your actually in prison and that we were thinking well we’ll be here til April, we could get out on April Fool’s Day 2005 and then suddenly in the evening, Wednesday evening, the third of November, the door opened and the guards came in, “right, pack up your stuff, Meyerhoff, Inder-Smith, Highway”, “why sir?” oh, you’ve got bail”. Oh, so we got out just like that, pretty amazing and I think it was due largely to the support we had, it was just amazing that people rallied round and people were emailing each other and it was up on the website and people acted so quickly so that’s terrific, but you know, there’s so much corruption and injustice there, I mean a lot of people there are aboriginal people and the NT prison population is 86% black and I reckon there must be heaps of people there that aren’t supposed to be there. I’ve heard from other people that shouldn’t be in there that some people don’t even know what they are in for, when their release date is, so what, prison is supposed to be a deterrent to crime well where’s the deterrent there if people don’t even know what the crime is…

Marisa: So just…

Stuart Highway: … a lot of aboriginal people they don’t understand English that well, English is a second, third or fourth language and they don’t understand the legal process…

Marisa: Well that’s appalling isn’t it?...

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: There’s a serious literacy problem in all of our population really but for aboriginal people it’s particularly prominent because of the trauma that they’ve experienced over the generations because of all the colonisation issues…

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: …something that really prisons are a reflection of a sick society anyway, of a sick society, don’t really understand?

Stuart Highway: Yeah, it all get’s back to poverty and racism and the dispossession of aboriginal people, the theft of their land…

Marisa: Which is what your groups about really isn’t it?

Stuart Highway: Yeah, well, it all ties in, with racism, one of our friends was Margot Laughton, she was in prison in, and the NT Labor Government you know they pretend their about reconciliation and saying sorry to the stolen generations, well Margot Laughton was a member of the stolen generation, she was taken away from her parents when she was a child and how do they help these members of the stolen generation, put em in jail for cannabis? I mean, this is, you know, a harmless middle-aged lady who was, indigenous lady who was selling cannabis, she just used it to cope with stress and you know, just, it’s better than alcohol, it’s certainly better than petrol sniffing, which is rife in aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, now they’re going to prohibit that, the Northern Territory Government, great, it’s gonna make criminals of even more people.

Marisa: Yeah. So, and all of these issues are really relevant but getting back to you Stuart, so they didn’t dismiss the appeal then, the appeal hasn’t been dismissed then? That was a mistake?

Stuart Highway: Well, our appeal against the conviction was dismissed heard and dismissed by the supreme court, we did it ourselves on the 30th and 31st of August…

Marisa: Right.

Stuart Highway: …and the decision was handed down a couple of weeks later, but we still had the appeal against the sentence to be heard, coz the appeal was split and the appeal, you know, even though we lost that appeal, well, we were still appealing the severity of that five month prison sentence…

Marisa: So why were you…

Stuart Highway: … and also we lodged an appeal with the full bench of the supreme court which is three judges instead of one and so, I wasn’t sure what was going on when we got arrested, I thought maybe we misunderstood how the system worked but we still got this appeal against the sentence which can’t happen until after this full bench appeal apparently, I wasn’t sure which would come first, we haven’t got a date for either of those appeals as yet so someone made a mistake, the so-called Department of Justice in the Northern Terrritory hasn’t actually admitted who was the individual who made this mistake, who issued these warrants? They just said well a mistake’s been made and we’re looking into taking legal action, suing the Northern Government for wrongful imprisonment…

Marisa: Did you actually see a copy of the warrants Stuart or did Gary or Rob?

Stuart Highway: Well someone did see, Gary did see a copy and, but they wouldn’t, that was only in the prison, reading it upside down I think, I’m not sure…

Marisa: They didn’t show you the warrant?

Stuart Highway: ….no well hang on, maybe Gary did ask to see the warrant by the police, I think they did show it to him, I’m not absolutely sure…

Marisa: But you didn’t?

Stuart Highway: No I didn’t see it, coz I just didn’t even wanna talk to the police I just didn’t want, I wasn’t sure, you know, of my rights…

Marisa: Well you should have as a matter of course have been shown a copy of that warrant and certainly when I rang up and introduced myself as an advocate, because I’ve actually received training as an advocate, I was told that warrants were there, that there were copies of the warrants and I just asked them “look, what is going on here, why have these men been imprisoned?” They just could not give me a straight answer they just said they were going to have five months in prison, so, it was all very interesting but certainly you guys in Darwin have been working on the Anarchist Black Cross bulletin which I believe is out now…

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: …so if listeners want to get a copy of that bulletin and read more about the case you can contact 3CR on 9419 8377 or you can email Anarchist Black Cross at ABCMelb (at) yahoo.com.au…

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: Stuart, thanks so much for coming on…

Stuart Highway: Thank you, too.

Marisa: …and I’m sure that you’ll keep in touch with us and give us ongoing coverage on what’s going on over there it sounds like you guys are really active which is fantastic.

Stuart Highway: Yeah, thanks a lot Libby and thanks for your support, we really appreciate your support.

Marisa: Yeah, Marissa…laughs…

Stuart Highway: Yeah sorry…

Marissa: It’s alright.

Stuart Highway: Yeah, well this has been great and Peters been up here in Darwin, today we had a look at the Fannie Bay prison, the old Darwin prison and they’ve got an exhibition there with children’s drawings from the child detainees at the old Woomera detention centre…

Marisa: Really?

Stuart Highway: …yeah, it’s in this old corrugated iron shed, in the old prison and yeah, that’s quite interesting, you know, children’s drawings of protesters getting sprayed with water cannons and ACM guards it’s, and these are little children, doing these drawings, and…

Marisa: Yeah.

Stuart Highway: Yeah, and looking around those old prison cells at Fannie bay jail, and thinking, they hanged people there, two guys hanged there for murdering a taxi driver in 1952 and yes, do you think he, those cells, those dormitories, there’s corrugated iron roofs and sheds, I mean it’s really hot this time of year, it must have been hell in those kind of places…

Marisa: I can imagine…

Stuart Highway: Yeah.

Marisa: Well thanks so much Stuart, and we’ll catch up with you again, and Chris is here too, he’s been listening.

Stuart Highway: Hi Chris.

Marisa: Catch you soon.

Stuart Highway: Yep, no worries Marissa.

Marissa: Yep, thanks, bye.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 19th November 2004
Source: 3CR
Presenter: Marisa
Website: http://www.3cr.org.au