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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-06 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs questions on the topic of Aboriginal affairs.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: Volume 1, chapter 1, part 1.4 of the report of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody states:

The consequence of this (our colonial) history is the partial destruction of Aboriginal culture and a large part of the Aboriginal population and also disadvantage and inequality of Aboriginal people in all the areas of social life where comparison is possible between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The other consequence is the considerable degree of breakdown of many Aboriginal communities and a consequence of that and of many other factors, the losing of their way by many Aboriginal people and with it the resort to excessive drinking, and with that violence and other evidence of the breakdown of society. As this report shows, this legacy of history goes far to explain the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody, and thereby the death of some of them.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Has the minister read the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody?

2. What, if any, among the factors common to those who died in custody, does the minister consider relevant to the government's work in relation to a voice in parliament?

3. What actions has the minister taken to address disadvantage and inequality of Aboriginal people?

4. What actions has the minister taken to address and prevent systemic discrimination and racism prevalent in our community and our institutions?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very good question. In relation specifically to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, from memory—and I can double-check—I think there were some hundreds of recommendations that flowed from that. I know that there had been annual reports in relation to the implementation of those recommendations that were conducted for some years after the royal commission was handed down. I don't think there is now the same reporting that occurs on a yearly basis as it had in the past.

I certainly have read the report. I haven't read it in full recently. In a previous working life, 20 years ago, I was the chief of staff to the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, who was also the Minister for Corrections, and I think, if my memory serves me correctly, that was still at a time when yearly reports against the recommendations were being provided through each jurisdiction. There had been significant progress that had been made in many jurisdictions, including South Australia, towards implementing many—if not most—elements of that royal commission. I will have a look and see if there are any recent reports, and if there are I will bring them back to the honourable member.

Certainly, the levels of discrimination and disadvantage that so many Aboriginal people face, in my view, is the greatest stain on us as a modern society. The fact that a report that I read two to three years ago talked about the average life expectancy for a male living on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands was 48 years shows how far we have to go for Aboriginal men and women in a state that is otherwise so prosperous. There aren't easy solutions. If there were easy solutions, someone very bright from one or the other side of politics would have found a lot of the solutions to overcome that level of disadvantage by now.

One thing that does strike me in the couple of decades I have been working in and out of Aboriginal affairs is that policies aimed at overcoming those levels of disadvantage don't have any realistic chance of working if they are not informed heavily in their design and implementation by Aboriginal people. Certainly, areas that we are progressing, such as a Voice to Parliament and government, is one area that seeks to give Aboriginal people more say in the decisions that affect their lives.

The Treaty process that we had embarked upon and we will be restarting and will be happening federally is another element in making sure Aboriginal people have a much greater say over those decisions that affect their lives. Certainly, that's a driving motivation behind much of what we do, but there is much, much more to be done and there are many, many circumstances and difficulties to overcome.

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