Bills

Summary Offences (Custody Notification Service) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:50): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Summary Offences Act 1953. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:50): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Summary Offences (Custody Notification Service) Amendment Bill 2018 amends the Summary Offences Act and establishes a service that ensures that when Aboriginal people are taken into custody the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement is notified.

The intent of this bill is very simple: to save Aboriginal lives. Aboriginal people make up around 2 per cent of the South Australian population, yet approximately 27 per cent of the South Australian prison population. There is much more to be done to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system but something that can be done to reduce the number of Aboriginal deaths while they are in custody is to legislate for a custody notification service (CNS).

There was a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 that investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody over a 10-year period that provided some 339 recommendations. Recommendations 223 and 224 are relevant to this bill and are as follows. Recommendation 223:

That Police Services, Aboriginal Legal Services and relevant Aboriginal organisations at a local level should consider agreeing upon a protocol setting out the procedures and rules which should govern areas of interaction between police and Aboriginal people. Protocols, among other matters, should address questions of:

a. Notification of the Aboriginal Legal Service when Aboriginal people are arrested or detained;

b. The circumstances in which Aboriginal people are taken into protective custody by virtue of intoxication;

c. Concerns of the local community about local policing and other matters; and

d. Processes which might be adopted to enable discrete Aboriginal communities to participate in decisions as to the placement and conduct of police officers on their communities.

Recommendation 224 provided:

That pending the negotiation of protocols referred to in Recommendation 223, 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 Aboriginal Legal Services and the Police Services that notification is not required.

It has been nearly three decades since the royal commission, and although I understand there are some processes in place in South Australia for limited visitation, this legislation will ensure that these particular recommendations are further implemented.

A custody notification service already operates in New South Wales and I understand was established in 2000 in direct response to the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The New South Wales CNS requires police to contact the New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service whenever they have taken an Aboriginal person into custody. The 24-hour service provides initial legal advice from an ALS lawyer, as well as an R U OK? check to help mitigate against risks of self-harm or suicide. The CNS lawyers can also contact the person's family to alleviate any concerns for the person's whereabouts and wellbeing.

I am informed that in New South Wales, since it was introduced and up until 2016, there has not been an Aboriginal death in police custody. I am advised that in July 2016, for the first time in 16 years, the procedures that were mandated failed and an Aboriginal woman died in custody. The New South Wales experience demonstrates that a custody notification service can save Aboriginal lives and it is timely now to make it a mandatory part of the South Australian police work to notify (in South Australia) the ALRM if an Aboriginal person enters into custody, as they have done in New South Wales for almost 20 years now.

I would like to take this opportunity, in moving this bill, to thank the people who have devoted their lifetime as advocates for Aboriginal people within the justice system, in particular the ALRM's chief executive, Cheryl Axleby, and Narungga elder and APOSS chief executive, Tauto Sansbury. They are two amongst many Aboriginal people who have dedicated themselves to tirelessly advance the lives of Aboriginal people, including attempting to break the cycle of recidivism and incarceration. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S. Lee.