THE human condition is such that, whether out of malice, opportunity, desperation or passion, some people will break the law in even the most functional and prosperous societies. But no matter the motivation, in a civilised society criminals are isolated from the rest of the population to protect the innocent, punish the guilty and deter their imitators. Which is why NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery's comments this past weekend seem so bizarre. Speaking to a conference of the NSW Teachers Federation, he said increased sentences, additional police and mandatory sentences do nothing to prevent crime. Instead, he called for society to spend more to sure people get good education, receive decent healthcare and have decent places to live. These are all honourable goals. But in Australia and overseas, decades of expensive left-wing social engineering projects of the sort Mr Cowdery advocates have proved abject failures when it comes to preventing crime. "Assist(ing) those juggling the competing demands of work and family life" may be a noble goal, but it will not cut the number of criminals, as Mr Cowdery claims. Mr Cowdery seems to forget crime is broadly on the decline in NSW – the murder rate is at its lowest in 20 years – and that the incarceration of baddies on his watch is a large part of the reason for this. NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics research shows that locking up convicted burglars prevents 45,000 burglaries a year. The data also suggests that doubling sentences would prevent another 14,000 such crimes annually. Mr Cowdery's welfare-based approach to crime prevention has been rightly derided as naive and unworkable. Criminologist Paul Wilson of Bond University summed it up, telling The Australian there was "no evidence" to support Mr Cowdery's claims.

Here the experience of New York City, once considered ungovernable and lawless, provides a useful case study. When Rudy Giuliani was sworn in as mayor of New York in 1994, he embraced the "broken windows" doctrine of policing. What were once considered petty crimes and not worth cop time – fare evasion and public urination – were cracked down on. This sent the message to criminals that bigger crimes would not be tolerated either, and re-energised the morale of a city whose previous mayor had gone so far as to let looters rampage unchecked during the Crown Heights riots of 1991, which took the life of Melburnian rabbinical student Yankel Rosenbaum. Mayor Giuliani's policies were controversial, but they worked spectacularly. In 1990, the city had a record 2,245 homicides. In 2004, there were just 571 – a level not seen since 1963. Under Mr Giuliani, overall crime fell 57 per cent and the city enjoyed a remarkable civic renaissance.

This is not the only time Mr Cowdery has raised eyebrows. In the wake of the Cronulla riots and subsequent revenge attacks, he complained about local politicians who called rioters "grubs" – although he has not refrained from calling the media and politicians "bottom feeders". And he has been a repeated critic of state elections, which he says turn into little more than "law-and-order auctions". These are strange positions for a Director of Public Prosecutions to take. And they bolster the case of NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam that Mr Cowdery's position should not be a lifetime appointment, but rather held for a seven-year term. Mr Cowdery, who complains that outsiders should leave "experts" such as himself to handle criminal justice matters, should do the same when it comes to health, education and housing.

Long overdue dams
Finally Peter Beattie is building what Brisbane needs

AS political escape artists go, Peter Beattie is hard to beat. Yesterday's announcement that the Queensland Government will build a new dam at Wyaralong, with an announcement on the details of the Traveston mega-dam to follow today, shows the Premier acting decisively to secure southeast Queensland's future water supplies. And it demonstrates he is determined to stand up to the self-interested critics who oppose desperately needed dams. By confronting the critics with his trademark frankness, Mr Beattie looks as though he is placing policy over his own political advantage. And by committing his Government to a water grid to move supplies between catchments, he shows he understands the need for long-term solutions to droughts such as the present one, which has drained Brisbane's dams to less than 30 per cent of capacity. Of course, there is another benefit for Mr Beattie in his water wizardry – it helps him escape responsibility for a crisis that is in part of his own making.

That Brisbane and its hinterland are drought-stricken is not Mr Beattie's doing. Nor is his the first government whose water management strategy is to pray for rain. But Mr Beattie is remorseless in reminding us how the population of Brisbane and its hinterland is projected to grow by one million in the next 20 years. After eight years in office and five years into a drought, water supply is manifestly the Premier's problem. Like the previously perennial power problem in summer and staff shortages in hospitals, the Beattie Government avoided the risk of water shortage for too long. As with these other areas of public sector infrastructure, the Premier is throwing a bucket of money at water problems that years of proper planning and infrastructure investment should have made more manageable. There are plans to divert $87 million from capital works to a rebate scheme for households that save water, despite the absence of any data on how such conservation schemes should work. The pipeline plan will take years to complete, a scary situation considering water supplies in southeast Queensland will run out in 2008 without drought-breaking rain.

But at least Mr Beattie is doing what he should have done years ago – building dams. And inevitably the usual unholy alliance of green zealots, political opportunists and aggrieved locals are outraged. And the inevitable threatened species – in this case the lung fish and Mary River cod – get a mention. Federal Minister Warren Truss, part of whose electorate will be flooded by Traveston, is also upset, and says Canberra will block the dam unless it meets federal wildlife protection laws. But unless anybody has any new and epochal evidence, Mr Beattie should ignore the complaints and get on with the job. The new dams will not solve the present crisis. But the Traveston and Wyaralong projects will provide water for southeast Queensland for generations to come. On this basis, it is hard to imagine any sensible argument against them.

Artistic licence
An inquiry will probe the tainted indigenous art trade

WHEN The Australian revealed the secret scandal of the corrupt state of the indigenous art trade in March this year, the Howard Government paid attention. As Nicolas Rothwell and Ashleigh Wilson wrote in these pages, the dark side of the indigenous desert art market is a national disgrace, awash with fakes, scams, carpetbaggers, con men and artists' fees paid in everything from beer to Viagra. The one productive economic activity and viable source of income for indigenous people across remote Australia, the national trade, worth about $300 million a year, is under threat from the weight of moral decay. The rot The Australian unveiled included threats of violence to protect forging scams and the use of duress to force indigenous artists to mass-produce art and make quick profits for crooks. The reports by Rothwell and Wilson prompted federal Arts Minister Rod Kemp in April to announce an investigation to stamp out dodgy operators and end their exploitation of indigenous artists. Now, after visiting desert communities to take in the situation first hand, Senator Kemp is on the verge of announcing a sweeping parliamentary inquiry into the indigenous art industry. As Wilson writes today, the inquiry's terms of reference, drawn up with the involvement of Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, will probe the corruption within the Aboriginal art market and how best to ensure its sustainability.

How much is at risk is clear in two new exhibitions in Paris showcasing Aboriginal art at its best. One is a splendid display of desert art at the Australian embassy. The other is a permanent exhibition in the French capital's brand new Quai Branly Museum, intended as the cultural legacy of President Jacques Chirac and designed to exhibit indigenous art from around the world. Alongside Aboriginal paintings and artefacts on show in its gallery spaces, eight of Australia's prominent indigenous artists have used some of the museum's walls, ceilings and pillars as giant canvases, producing vibrant works visible to the street through huge glass windows. There is no time to lose.