Bills

Summary Offences (Custody Notification Service) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (16:24): 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) (16:25): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart reads in part:

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem.

These are profound words and these are important words. They speak of the systemic and structural nature of what can often appear to be almost insurmountable challenges. The decades are now a couple of centuries of dispossession, discrimination, disadvantage and racism that contribute to the structural nature of our problem. Deliberate policies that carried on into living memory were designed to destroy and diminish Aboriginal people, their families, their communities and their culture. The always-lingering effects contribute to the structural nature of our problem.

There are many underlying issues that result in Aboriginal people having too much contact with the criminal justice system. These include health, housing, education and employment that require the constant attention of government and policymakers. The failures in these areas are part of the structural nature of our problem. The massive over-representation of Aboriginal people coming into contact with the criminal justice system is a manifestation of the structural nature of these problems.

Many Aboriginal people have a difficult relationship with the criminal justice system and have had experiences, over many decades, that contribute to that. Having said that, I have witnessed, and have been fortunate to witness, some of the very best relationships Aboriginal people have, particularly with the police. Particularly in very remote communities, police are often an essential part of that community.

In places like Yalata I have seen the police participating in playing footy with members of the community, building very strong relationships. Across the APY lands I have seen many very good officers whose understanding of the community, whose integration within the community and whose care and respect for the community sees them being trusted and sees them being able to avert problems before they become bigger problems and people having contact with the criminal justice system. This is policing at its best, and it has contributed to the great deal of respect, particularly in remote communities, that many Aboriginal people have for the police. But that is not the experience that everyone has.

Many of us will have seen the video footage, from a couple of nights ago, of Noel Henry. I spent time last night in Kilburn with Aboriginal families who discussed some of their experiences with the police. A number of mothers talked about the fact that they did not like their children being out after dark. This is not out of a worry about what will happen because of other things in the world; these Aboriginal mothers did not like their children being out after dark because they were scared of them coming into contact with the police. This stems from decades of poor relationships and decades of over-representation of coming into contact with the criminal justice system.

I mentioned that I have seen some remarkably well-respected policing in the APY lands, but I have also seen, amongst some senior officers in the APY lands, much less respect. In meetings, I have heard senior officers talk about traditional Aboriginal art being completely made up, talk about the fact that Aboriginal people get sit-down money and talk about the fact that men's business goes on far too long because Aboriginal people just do not want to go back to work.

These are the comments I have personally heard from senior officers of the police force in the APY lands. They do not reflect my usual experience with police in the APY lands, but these are the nature of some of the attitudes that are there in some of our big institutions, like the police.

There are big issues, systemic issues that need addressing, but there are also specific and particular actions that can and should be taken. Senator Pat Dodson, one of the commissioners on the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, told the Senate:

Thirty years ago, the royal commission that I was part of made 339 recommendations to the parliament. That commission had been set up by the Hawke government. At that time, there were 99 deaths that we were concerned about in this nation to effect a national royal commission. Now we've had over 400 deaths since that royal commission. Thirty years have passed, and we have not addressed the underlying issues that give rise to people being taken into custody and, consequently, dying in custody.

The Labor Party has previously introduced a custody notification service bill into parliament. That bill covered arrests without a warrant under the Summary Offences Act and applied to people in the custody of a prescribed custodial officer, being the officer in charge of a custodial police station or officer in charge of a designated police facility.

The bill that is currently before us differs by broadening the scope of apprehensions to include both those made with or without a warrant, designed to take in all of those who come into police detention. It also broadens the scope of prescribed offices to include the manager of a youth detention or training centre to make sure all Aboriginal people, regardless of their age, are covered by the effect of the bill.

This bill may not affect vastly the disproportionate number of Aboriginal people who end up in custody. Aboriginal people make up something close to one-third of our prison population, and as of a couple of weeks ago Aboriginal young people made up 80 per cent of our youth detention population in South Australia. Even more sadly, Aboriginal people tend to be underrepresented among those on community corrections orders. In simple terms, Aboriginal people are more likely to come into contact with the justice system and, when they do, they are more likely to be held in custody than not, and then they are more likely to go to gaol.

The challenge of excessive contact with the criminal justice system is one that must be addressed with determination, and that will have to continue for years to come. This bill addresses what happens when an Aboriginal person is first brought into police detention. It seeks to establish a system where a police officer or manager of a youth detention centre must contact the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement at that first instance when an Aboriginal person is taken into custody. We know that that is a time of especially great risk.

This bill adopts recommendation 224 of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In my view it is not just desirable that we put into place programs and measures to reduce Aboriginal deaths in custody; we have a moral obligation to do so. This is especially so given the past treatment of Aboriginal people, families and communities that necessarily contributed to where we are now.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.