2023-10-25
Attributable to Greens portfolio holder for First Nations, Resources, Trade, Tourism and Sport, and Yamatji Noongar woman, Senator Dorinda Cox:
“The West Australian Government is clearly asleep at the wheel because the justice system is out of control and somebody needs to intervene, so I'm calling on the Commonwealth to do exactly that.
“The standing down of the Corrective Services Commissioner Mike Reynolds is purely symbolic in the wake of young Cleveland Dodd’s death, as Unit 18 at Casuarina maximum security adult prison is still open. I call on the West Australian government to immediately close Unit 18.
“During Senate estimates, my colleague David Shoebridge and I asked questions of the federal department of the Attorney General about what is the red line issue here and where will the Commonwealth step in to make sure that children are not being systematically abused in institutions in Western Australia?
“I welcome the investigation of the Corruption and Crime Commission in WA. It must be an independent and thorough investigation.
“It is a national shame that a 16 year old child with an intellectual disability has taken his own life in Unit 18, the first death of a child in custody in WA history.
“Cleveland Dodd was on remand and should not have been locked in his cell for 22 hours or more a day, as many of the youth detainees routinely are, meaning they’re effectively in solitary confinement for weeks in a row. It has to stop. Unit 18 must go.”
Attributable to Greens spokesperson for Defence and Justice David Shoebridge:
“This was an appallingly predictable tragedy. Two separate decisions of the WA Supreme Court have pointed out that the detention of children in WA jails is in gross breach of human rights, in gross breach of WA laws, in gross breach of any ethical standard, and those judgements have been ignored by the WA Government.
“This death is tragic but brutally predictable and on recent reports, it appears a guard was allegedly asleep at the time of this most tragic death.
“The federal government needs to realise that WA cannot be trusted in the justice space, nor can Queensland with the abuse of children in watch-houses in Queensland police stations.
“There are international standards that need to be applied and the federal government must step up and set those minimum standards, so that next week we don't have another tragedy in WA or Queensland.”