Finocchiaro’s promise to lower age of criminal responsibility to 10 a powder keg

Without a doubt, newly elected Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has been handed a poisoned chalice by her Labor predecessor as she prepares to lead her CLP government.

Inheriting a $10bn debt is a crushing burden in a territory with a minuscule population where its private sector GDP growth has been swamped by the public service bureaucracy.

No previous government has successfully handled the territory’s burgeoning debt well.

That is a tough enough challenge, but Finocchiaro’s pre-election promise to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years is a potential powder keg that could well prove to make her government a one-term wonder.

Since the Whitlam government introduced the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975, Labor has made Alice Springs and the remote Aboriginal communities of Central Australia a focal point for its human rights activism, not only in Australia but in the UN Human Rights Committee on the world stage.

The terrible youth crime crisis in Alice Springs and its neighbouring remote Aboriginal communities has been making world headlines. A demoralised NT Labor opposition will undoubtedly seize on any move to lower the age of criminal responsibility to portray it to the UN as a direct attack on the human rights of the child in Aboriginal communities.

It will be a true test of Finocchiaro’s leadership to see if she can win enough support in those same remote communities to get her promise past the post, to convince Territorians that all-of-community safety and social harmony is a far greater desired priority than the blinkered idealism of minority group activism.

John Bell, Heidelberg Heights, Vic

Erratic on Iran

One would have to tip their hat to Alexander Downer for his honest review of the current situation in the Middle East and Iran’s involvement, ably and directly supported by a confused and impotent West (“Selective morality has let Iran off the hook across West”, 26/8). It would seem that reading history books is a thing of the past and as a result lessons are being relearnt as aggressive dictatorships continue to run rings around progressive Western governments. Being woke and soft has never corralled an aggressive and brutal regime.

At home, the Australian government’s erratic and selective foreign policy on the Middle East is a case in point. Yes, Mr Downer, the West’s confused behaviour regarding Middle Eastern issues that matter is bewildering at best and why they continue to nourish Iran with cash, and trust that it will do the right thing when it matters, is the stuff of fairytales. As a result, at some stage Iran, the root cause of all Middle Eastern issues, will have to be dealt with harshly by the West, and hopefully before any of the ayatollahs get their hands anywhere near a red button.

Tom Moylan, Dudley Park, WA

Literacy and youth

About 90 per cent of our juvenile and adult prisoners are males and about 90 per cent cannot read or write. Below is what I wrote and presented to the federal Inquiry Into the Education of Boys in 2000 (yes 24 years ago):

“Low literacy levels combined with educational alienation in particular for low-income young men were the most important and most easily treated precipitants for their very serious offending behaviour.”

This statement was met with incredulity by some of the parliamentary Blinky Bills on the committee. Nothing was done and we are still failing poor young men in the most appalling fashion.

I thank National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds for raising this damn obvious issue again (“States dragging their heels on key step to literacy”, 26/8).

Andrew Humphreys, Adelaide

Flexible work life

The introduction of the right to disconnect stems from the need to prioritise the mental wellbeing and work-life balance of employees. It is a well-meaning piece of legislation but, if implemented ineffectively, poses an immense threat to the flexibility that so many workers enjoy.

We have made significant strides in the past few years of affording people greater licence to dictate how they work. But as a hard and fast rule, the right to disconnect could be incredibly detrimental to those who prefer operating outside of a traditional 9-5. The key to a happy balance will be a fundamental level of trust and transparency between employers and their employees.

In the face of these changes, it has become increasingly essential to nurture business environments that set realistic expectations for communication outside of standard work times from the outset, provide flexibility with work hours, and create an open dialogue with employees about balancing work-life needs with specific performance expectations.

Matt Loop, vice-president and head of Asia, Rippling workforce management platform (NSW)