2016-04-19
The Senate has supported a Greens motion calling on the Governments around Australia to act on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody made 25 years ago.
“It really is quite astounding that successive Governments have basically sat and watched Aboriginal deaths in custody and incarceration grow for 25 years”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
“It is a national shame that deaths continue and incarceration rates climb.
“In 1991, 14 percent of the prison population were Aboriginal, now Aboriginal people make up 27%. The Government must listen to Aboriginal leaders, the community and the senate and move to implement the recommendation of the Royal Commission.
"The motion also called on the Government to implement justice targets as part of closing the gap, I urge the Government to rethink their opposition to this target.
“Last year Minister Scullion scoffed at the prospect of justice targets, despite them being supported by Aboriginal community leaders across the country. They must be implemented as a priority.
“I urge Minister Scullion, and the Government, to listen to the will of the Senate and the community at large. The time is now to address this national shame”.
Motion reads:
1126 Senator Siewert: To move—That the Senate—
(a) notes that 15 April 2016 marked 25 years since the release of the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991;
(b) recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples:
(i) are imprisoned at a rate 13 times higher than that of non-Indigenous people, and are estimated to make up 3 per cent of the Australian population, but 27 per cent of the prison population, and
(ii) constituted 14 per cent of the prison population in 1991, but now make up 27 per cent of the prison population;
(c) acknowledges that more than 204 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the release of the Royal Commission report;
(d) expresses its concern that a quarter of a century later, many of the Royal Commission’s recommendations have not been fully implemented; and
(e) calls on the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to:
(i) implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and
(ii) adopt justice targets in order to close the gap and to change the record on the rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.