Sights set on petrol traffickers

POLICE in central Australia have created a multi-jurisdictional intelligence unit to tackle trafficking in drugs, alcohol and petrol in a bid to curb substance abuse in Aboriginal communities.

An agreement between police forces in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will also create uniform laws to punish criminals who supply illegal substances to communities with fines or lengthy jail terms.

The Substance Abuse Intelligence Desk -- to be opened in Alice Springs this week -- was set up in response to petrol-sniffing and has $500,000 in federal government funds in its first year to gather intelligence and run police operations against traffickers.

Northern Territory Police's Alice Springs Commander Mark Coffey said that while illicit drugs had always been a target, there had never been a comprehensive attempt to go after traffickers of petrol and alcohol in the same way.

"Some of the people taking grog out to these communities are also selling drugs and petrol," Commander Coffey said.

"Whilst there's substance abuse in the communities, there's reports of sexual abuse and people selling sex for petrol. If we can do something about substance abuse, other areas will improve."

The federal Government has secured an agreement from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory to introduce tough uniform laws to allow police to prosecute traffickers.

Current penalties for supplying petrol for sniffing vary from 12 months in prison or a $12,000 fine in Western Australia to $50,000 or 10 years in prison for offences in the Anangu-Pitjantjatjara lands in South Australia.

New penalties in the Northern Territory, allowing for two years in prison for traffickers and a range of other measures to protect communities hit by the scourge of sniffing, are considered the new model for central Australia. However, Western Australia has said a 12-month jail term is sufficient.

Under the agreement, sniffing petrol will not be a criminal offence but police or an authorised person will be able to confiscate and destroy a sniffer's petrol and force them to get treatment.

In addition, the three state and territory police forces are joining forces by opening police stations in remote communities straddling borders, staffed by officers from both sides of the border, to increase the law-enforcement presence.

"There is evidence that police presence in a community can make a real difference to the prevalence of petrol-sniffing," says a joint submission to the current Senate inquiry from the federal departments of Health and Indigenous Affairs.

The submission says volatile substance misuse "appears to be increasing" and emerging in new locations, including urban areas.

The law-and-order focus is part of a zero-tolerance approach to trafficking in Aboriginal communities. It will be coupled with a planned extension to roadhouses of the federal Government-subsidised scheme to supply outback communities with "unsniffable" Opal petrol.

Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council co-ordinator Vicky Gillick, who represents indigenous women in the central Australian areas that the new intelligence unit would target, said new offences were needed, as were police in the communities.

The intelligence unit will be staffed with two new officers, with the balance of the federal funding to pay for operations against traffickers.

"There's not an offence of trafficking. With supplying petrol for the purpose of sniffing there is an offence, but that's like catching someone in the act of selling petrol to a sniffer," Ms Gillick said.

"In terms of trafficking, we're going to need legislation. A police presence in the community would also have a deterrent effect -- that's the only way you're going to catch the suppliers."

Ms Gillick said the first person ever to be convicted and sentenced to prison for supplying petrol -- an Aboriginal education worker -- had been given a six-month sentence in South Australia.

Despite millions of dollars in funding for the Opal petrol scheme, however, The Australian understands the federal Government is planning to include just one Alice Springs petrol station, which Ms Gillick said would encourage trafficking.

"If you don't have it in Alice Springs then how can you deal with trafficking?

There's a big hole in the middle of it," she said.

Commander Coffey said the first co-located police station, at Kintore in the Northern Territory, which has a West Australian officer stationed, had shown different police forces could work together and get results in surrounding communities.

"That's been pretty successful and helped reduce petrol sniffing and other associated crimes," he said.

Now the West Australian Government is planning to open a station at Warakuna, on the border with the territory, which will have some officers from the territory force.

West Australian Indigenous Affairs Minister John Kobelke said in a submission to the Senate inquiry the roll-out of Opal fuel in the cross-border region was "a key aspect of supply reduction, as is the Substance Abuse Intelligence Desk and associated policing activities".

Petrol-sniffing remains an enormous problem in many communities, such as Mutitjulu, near Uluru.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 16 January 2006
Source: The Australian (Australia)
Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au
Email: letters@theaustralian.com.au
Author: Simon Kearney