Question Time

Jury Representation, First Nations Australians

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs a question regarding the representation of First Nations Australians on juries.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: In June 2023, the country's peak judicial body, the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, released 'The Australian Jury in Black And White: Barriers to Indigenous Representation'. The report was commissioned following the trial of Senior Constable Zachary Rolfe, who was found not guilty of murdering Walpiri man Kumanjayi Walker. Despite First Nations people's accounting for one-third of the entire Northern Territory population, the jury did not include a single Aboriginal person.

The report itself notes that juries, 'routinely failed to include First Nations jurors' and suggests, 'there is a strong argument for giving serious consideration to restructuring jury representation to affirmatively include First Nations jurors.' A social sciences informed model referenced in the report is prefaced on research that shows '[juries] must have at least three minorities to successfully resist the group pressure of the majority in jury decision-making processes'. Meanwhile, as The Australian reports, former Queensland Supreme Court judge Roslyn Atkinson delivered the 2024 Selden Society lecture last month, highlighting:

[The under-representation of First Nations Australians on juries] is a continuing problem, just as the under-representation of women was…If juries are meant to be members of the community who are peers of the defendant, then it is critical that First Nations people are also fairly represented on juries.

My questions to the Attorney are: has the Attorney considered the report that I have referenced, and has consideration been given to affirmative action measures to address under-representation of First Nations people on juries here in our state, and has consideration been given to the degree to which exclusion from jury service due to living beyond the jury district boundary impacts First Nations South Australians?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:30): I thank the honourable member for her important questions. They are very good questions and ones that I have had a number of discussions about already, including in reference to the report that the honourable member mentions.

It is not just on juries but it is in many aspects of the justice system, particularly the criminal justice system, that Aboriginal people have been dismally under-represented for many, many years. It was only last year that, for the first time in the history of this state and the colony that preceded it, an Aboriginal person presided over a court in South Australia when we appointed two remarkably able women from the Legal Services Commission as magistrates in South Australia.

We know that Aboriginal people make up far too high a proportion of those who come before the courts and those who are sentenced in our courts. We led the way at the turn of the last century, in 1988, with the establishment in Murray Bridge and Port Adelaide of a Nunga sentencing court, where Aboriginal elders were able to be part of the sentencing process for people who plead guilty and, during the term of this parliament, we have passed legislation to back the establishment of Nunga courts, which are now operating in a number of other areas, including Maitland, Port Lincoln and Yalata.

In relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation on juries, the evidence is clear from reports, including the one the honourable member mentioned, that Aboriginal people are very under-represented on juries. There is a current study—I think it is the University of New South Wales which is undertaking the study—looking at some of the factors that contribute to that. I am very keen to make sure where we can as South Australians, and the South Australian Attorney-General's Department, that we provide information to that study, and I look forward to seeing what that study recommends and discussing this matter with attorneys-general from around Australia.