Double standards !

It seems to be a clear case of  " double standards " when Australia is urging Indonesian prosecutors to be merciful with a fourteen year old Australian boy, caught buying drugs in Bali - and at the same time we are holding more than a dozen Indonesian children in our adult gaols - because they can not prove their true age.

In each case these children have been recruited as cooks or crew on SIEVS -  suspected illegal entry vessels - the boats that are crammed with hopeful asylum seekers which are making rich returns for their criminal " people smuggling " overlords.

Indonesia is a poor country with a huge population and it's social services are not scrupulous on paperwork.    Thousands of children are born, given a name - and proceed through life without the benefit of a birth certificate or any form of documentation .   Indonesians also tend to be a race of small stature, hence it is difficult to determine age by physical examination.

Australian authorities rely on what is called an " X-Ray test ", but this has been discredited as totally unreliable - and there is also a " political factor " entering the equation.   Those children proven to be under eighteen are not charged and are repatriated to Indonesia.   Australian authorities fear that if they are too lenient on age testing, the people smugglers will crew their boats entirely with children to bypass our laws.

The fact remains that Indonesian children are languishing in adult Australia gaols and nothing is being done to relieve the situation.  A fourteen year old has spent two years in maximum security in Perth, and there are nine likely to be younger than eighteen in Silverwater - and two in Long Bay.

Had the Indonesians challenged the age of the boy held in Bali on drug charges, the Australian authorities would have produced reams of age evidence, including school reports and witness statements.    Surely our consular staff in Indonesia could be asked to visit the parents of these boys in their villages and secure statements from officials such as school headmasters, the local police, employers of their parents - that would at least throw doubt on the court claim that those held are over eighteen years of age.

As things stand, these double standards have absolutely nothing to do with the concept of justice !