Senator seeks tough action against petrol traffickers

The CLP Senator for the Northern Territory has recommended mandatory prison sentences for anyone caught trafficking petrol.

Senator Nigel Scullion outlined a series of proposals to combat petrol sniffing at a town council meeting in Alice Springs last night.

Senator Scullion told the meeting he recently visited the Papunya community in central Australia where he saw eight-year-olds sniffing petrol next to their parents.

Petrol is not available in Papunya but Senator Scullion says it is being trafficked in and is sold in small drink bottles specifically for sniffing.

He says community members are often responsible and he says he has had enough.

"Those people who are determined to cause misery in these communities need to be taken away from the communities for three to five years, no choice, hard action," he said.

Senator Scullion also says petrol sniffing should be illegal so police have more power to force petrol sniffers into care or treatment.

He says petrol trafficking is as serious a crime as people smuggling.

"This is an area where we have moved to have mandatory sentencing on people for example who smuggle, those who find themselves homeless from other parts of the world into Australia.

"We've provided them with a mandatory sentence principally because they traffic in human misery. I don't think there's anything different at all with those people who smuggle substances into these communities and I think they should be dealt with in the very same way.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/petrol.html
Pubdate: Tue, 27 September 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/