Labor senator Pat Dodson, who worked on the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, has criticised 30 years of government failure to “relieve this awful blight on this nation’s history”.
In a speech to the Senate on Wednesday, Dodson demanded the federal government make it a “top priority” to pressure the states and territories to take action on reducing Aboriginal incarceration rates and deaths in custody.
“And don’t pussyfoot around with the states, saying, ‘Oh, it’s the states’ responsibility.’ Well, we know you’ve been capable of finding ways of dealing with that.
“Now’s the time to stop the rot of First Nations people dying in custody, being over-imprisoned and having their children put into out-of-home care.”
Dodson said the “new you-beaut” Federation Reform Council could also look at the “continuing, systemic pattern” of incarceration.
Dodson spoke in response to an earlier statement by Matthias Cormann, who said these are “not straightforward” issues.
“Yes, we are committed to continue to explore ways that we can do better,” Cormann said. “We absolutely must do better when it comes to this important issue.”
Dodson was scathing of what he said were “nice words and good intentions”.
“This is not about enlightened policy; this is about subjugating the First Nations people,” he said. “If you correlate that to the number of people who have been taken away – the 30,000 kids in out-of-home care – and if you come up with things like, ‘It’s going to take time,’ or, ‘It’s complicated, and it’s really difficult,’ well, it’s not.
“Address the underlying issues – health, housing, education and employment – and work with First Nations people through the Coag system.
“For too long there have been nice words and good intentions, but the lack of action and commitment has not seen a reduction in deaths in custody; it’s seen an escalation in the social indicators that diminish First Nations people and diminish us as a nation.
“It diminishes us as a nation because we are incapable of dealing with Indigenous incarceration rates in the last 10 years.”
This week has seen renewed calls for the federal government to respond to the most recent in a series of more than a dozen inquiries into justice issues in the past decade.
(January 1, 2009) Senate access to justice inquiry
(31 recommendations)
(January 1, 2010) Australian Law Reform Commission inquiries into family violence and family violence and commonwealth laws
(January 1, 2011) Lower house inquiry into Indigenous youth experiences with the criminal justice system
(40 recommendations)
(January 1, 2012) Lower house inquiry into the prevention and diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders
(19 recommendations)
(January 1, 2013) Senate inquiry into justice reinvestment
(Nine recommendations)
(January 1, 2014) Productivity Commission report on access to justice
(83 recommendations)
(January 1, 2015) Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs inquiry into Harmful Use of Alcohol in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities
(January 1, 2016) Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Experience of Law Enforcement and Justice Services
(January 1, 2016) Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry into Indefinite Detention of People with Cognitive and Psychiatric Impairment in Australia
(January 1, 2017) The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory
(227 recommendations)
(January 1, 2018) Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice
(January 1, 1994) Reports of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
(January 1, 2010) The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice report was commissioned by then attorney general, George Brandis, in 2016.
At the time, Brandis said the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in prisons was a “national tragedy” and the commission’s inquiry would be a “critical step” in breaking through the disturbing statistics.
Pathways to Justice was tabled two years ago but the government has not made any formal response despite repeated calls from the Law Council of Australia and dozens of justice groups.
The report made 35 recommendations including:
abolishing the ability of states and territories to jail people for unpaid fines;
amending bail legislation to reduce the number of people on remand for minor offences;
abolishing all mandatory sentences that have a disproportionate effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
investment in local, Indigenous-led diversionary programs through a justice reinvestment process;
introducing a statutory custody notification scheme;
national targets around reducing Indigenous incarceration and violence toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
On this last point, the minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said new justice targets will be included in the Closing the Gap refresh to be announced in July.
