Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, I wish to make a statement concerning the committee’s inquiry into the high level of involvement of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in the criminal justice system across the states and territories of Australia. It is a tragic state of affairs that Indigenous juveniles and young adults are more likely to be incarcerated today than at any other time since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody released its seminal report in 1991. In that report, the royal commission said:

… the most significant contributing factor is the disadvantaged and unequal position in which Aboriginal people find themselves in the society-socially, economically and culturally.

That report talked about the sad state of Indigenous disadvantage and deaths in custody.

Currently, the detention rate for Indigenous juveniles is 28 times higher than that for non-Indigenous juveniles. Similarly, young Indigenous adults aged between 17 and 24 years of age are 15 times more likely than young non-Indigenous adults to be imprisoned. There is an alarming rise in the rate of imprisonment of Indigenous women across the country. Adverse contact with the criminal justice system is not confined to offenders; Indigenous people are more likely to be victims of crime, especially violent crime, than non-Indigenous people.

The committee has resumed the valuable work started by the last parliament. The committee has received 110 submissions and has travelled across the continent of Australia, from Fitzroy Crossing to Dubbo, to Perth, to Brisbane, to Melbourne and to Sydney to speak firsthand with those working in cities, regional centres and remote communities. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the former chair of the committee in the last parliament, the Hon. Bob Debus, for his longstanding, lifelong interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, and particularly his contribution as chair of the committee in the last parliament.

On 28 January 2011, in Redfern in New South Wales, the committee brought together participants from around Australia, including magistrates, state and territory police representatives, NGOs, academics and social researchers, counsellors, justice organisations and others working in diversion and intervention fields, for a roundtable hearing. The committee heard many terrific and wonderful success stories. For instance, Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson referred to Mornington Island, where robberies had dramatically reduced due to the dedication and long-term commitment of the local sergeant and his wife in developing the Police Citizens Youth Club and other programs working with Indigenous youth. These types of stories are happening across the length and breadth of the country; however, they are quite piecemeal and are without long-term outcomes.

The importance of role models and mentors was raised by many participants at the roundtable. Young Indigenous people are responding well to Indigenous mentors who are from their local community. Shane Phillips from the Tribal Warrior Association in Sydney described the role of a mentor, commenting:

A real mentor enables; they make themselves redundant … People do not want a mentor for the rest of their life. They want someone to help them engage in what they need to engage in and take on the responsibility for themselves.

Another area raised was the lack of appropriate accommodation for youth, particularly out-of-home care and accommodation for those being released from the criminal justice system. Having positive places and positive influences can make a difference. It was generally agreed at the roundtable that supporting parents and families would help reduce intergenerational entrenchment in the criminal justice system across the country.

A major area of concern was the need for coordination within jurisdictions. The constant refrain was that there were silos—departments not talking to departments, organisations not communicating with each other and individuals not chatting to each other about what is going on. Too much buck-passing was occurring across the country. This is a point made by Superintendent Emmanuel from the Western Australia Police Service, who described its core business as the need to stop the buck-passing.

The problems are complex and long standing. We must harness the energy and knowledge of those working in the field to make broad and far-reaching recommendations. The committee is committed to that to reverse the trend, to increase the number of Indigenous young people involved in community life and to prevent them being entrapped in criminal justice systems across the country.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am the Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and I continue the remarks made by the member for Blair, the chair of this committee, who explained very well the importance of this inquiry into the welfare of Aboriginal juveniles in the criminal justice system..

The committee is continuing the business started in the 42nd Parliament by this same committee. We are focusing on identifying how to better prevent or at least significantly reduce the levels of offending and its consequences, especially the imprisonment of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in Australia’s criminal justice system.

It is a fact that high incarceration rates for Indigenous people are a global trend. Data collected by the inquiry shows that Australia is in the most appalling situation where despite the Indigenous population representing only two per cent of the Australian population they represent 25 per cent of the prison population. Indigenous juveniles are 28 times more likely to be in detention than non-Indigenous juveniles. On most days Indigenous youth are half the detainee population across the country. Indigenous young adults are 15 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous young adults and more and more young Indigenous women are also being detained. Recidivism is much more likely for Indigenous adults. Indigenous Australians are more likely to be found in remand and in fact rates of remand for Indigenous Australians increased by over 70 per cent between 1984 and 2007. The numbers of Indigenous men and women in prisons also increased at a rate far higher than for non-Indigenous Australians. This, quite clearly, is not a situation that can be tolerated by any government, and I am pleased to say this is a totally bilaterally supported inquiry.

Offending and its consequences are the outcome of generations of poverty and disadvantage for most Indigenous youth. They represent an enormous human cost in lost opportunity and human potential. Escalating rates of offending against law and order leave communities fearful and under siege, with a prevailing and growing sense of hopelessness. There is also the significant financial cost of keeping people in prisons who might otherwise be living fulfilled and productive lives.

Our inquiry found that to understand the offending against state and territory laws you also need to take into consideration the extremely low levels of basic education, poor health, high rates of hearing impairment, appalling housing and overcrowding or homelessness, lack of employment, poor parenting skills and the quality of relationships between the Indigenous community and police. Some of those relationships are very good, as the committee chair stated. The relationship between low levels of education and employment and imprisonment are well established.

While tobacco smoking and drug and alcohol abuse have recently been given some attention due to their long term harmful effects on Indigenous communities, middle ear infections that lead to the extraordinarily high levels of Indigenous hearing loss receive far less attention. Obviously a child who cannot hear is at a great disadvantage in school or in any other social interaction. This hearing loss is preventable with early treatment of recurrent middle ear infections, and we heard much about that in our evidence.

As well, the first prevalence studies of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, in Western Australian Indigenous communities have estimated that more than 50 per cent of children in some communities have permanent intellectual and physical consequences from their mothers having consumed alcohol during pregnancy. International studies have shown that some 60 per cent of people with FASD end up in trouble with the law. This is a tragic outcome of what is another totally preventable disability. Yet, in Australia, we still do not pay attention to the need for better information for all pregnant women about the dangers of alcohol consumption and for pregnant women with alcohol dependency. They are not receiving much support.

We took expert evidence about the incidence of FASD in the Australian community—in particular, at the Sydney forum which our committee chair referred to—and we commend those now working with the Indigenous communities on this problem. And bear in mind that it is not just an indigenous issue. We have also received much advice and information about diversionary programs, including mentoring and community based programs aimed at overcoming the family dysfunction and lack of educational opportunities in some communities.

Studies have shown that young Indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to becoming trapped in a cycle of contact with the criminal justice system. This contact includes juvenile convictions compounded by, and compounding, limited education and employment options, drug and alcohol dependence and insecure and poor accommodation, As well, a person’s Indigenous status compounds their economic and social disadvantage.

The amount of Indigenous incarceration in Australia today is a great tragedy. The committee is reviewing both international and national best practice. We will soon be going to New Zealand to see what success they have had. We cannot and will not turn a blind eye to the rising rates of detention and remand in Australia and our committee will frame important recommendations.