The Leader of the Northern Territory’s Labor Opposition, Brian Ede, has called for the chemical castration of repeat sex offenders.
He told the Northern Territory’s Legislative Assembly courts should have the power to order that “”repeat sexual offenders submit to a program of treatment which may include a requirement that the offender take Depo-Provera or a like drug, being the option commonly known as chemical castration”.
“”Sometimes jails are not sufficient deterrent,” he said on Wednesday. “”Among the people I am talking about _ repeat sexual offenders, pedophiles and the like _ jail is not a deterrent. They have been there before, and they go into jail and big-note themselves about some poor little girl to which they did something. I can tell you that out there in the pubs where this mob gets together and big-note themselves, chemical castration is a deterrent. People start to think twice when they think about that little item.”
Members of the Country Liberal Party Government accused Mr Ede of grandstanding and “”trying to be more CLP than CLP”.
Mr Ede quoted Justice Kearney of the Northern Territory Supreme Court as saying the recidivist rate among pedophiles was 95 per cent.
“”They reoffend and reoffend and reoffend,” he said.
“”We put fluoride in the water in the interests of people’s safety by we shy away from stopping child molesters from committing further outrages on innocent children.”
It was not a quick-fix solution. To be effective the drug had to be administered continuously. It would not be a substitute for prison. Prisoners who refused treatment, however, would get a longer sentence. Prisoners who did not continue the drug and counselling program after release would go back to jail.
Mr Ede quoted from the Journal of General Psychology as to the drugs effectiveness.
Chemical castration was part of the Opposition’s get-tough law-and-order campaign which includes statements on victims’ rights and a squad to deal with fraud on Aboriginal communities.
Mr Ede quoted Australian Institute of Criminology figures showing the Northern Territory’s murder rate at eight times the national average and in the 12 years to 1990-91 the territory’s rape rate going from 7.76 per 100,000 people to 19.52, while nationally the figure had hardly moved.