Custody Notification Scheme

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:01): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Treasurer, representing the Attorney-General, a question regarding the Custody Notification Scheme.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: On 22 August 2017, Kunmanara Gibson, a 47-year-old Aboriginal man for whom English was a second language, died in custody after being found unconscious in his cell at Adelaide City Watch House. Sadly, there have been other deaths since then. The South Australian Aboriginal Visitors Scheme, operated by the ALRM (Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement), was not informed of Mr Gibson's arrest until after he died.

There have been at least 407 Indigenous deaths in custody since the royal commission in 1991 and 147 that The Guardian could find since 2008. One of the key recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was that all states notify a custody notification service whenever an Indigenous person is arrested to offer support, language and legal services. Recommendation 224 of that report states:

…in jurisdictions where legislation, standing orders or instructions do not already so provide, appropriate steps be taken to make it mandatory for Aboriginal Legal Services to be notified upon the arrest or detention of any Aboriginal person other than such arrests or detentions for which it is agreed between the…Legal Services and the Police Services that notification is not required.

In October 2016, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs announced that the Coalition government had written to all state and territory governments, offering to fund a national rollout of a custody notification scheme, similar to that which operates in New South Wales. It is a scheme which has been credited with saving the lives of Indigenous people in custody. My question to the Treasurer, for the Attorney-General, is: why has the government not yet implemented a custody notification service consistent with the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and will the government implement that scheme as a matter of urgency?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:03): I am happy to take the honourable member's question on notice and bring back a reply.