Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, 114 years ago in 1901—the first year of Federation—the federal member for Coolgardie, Hugh Mahon, moved a motion calling for a royal commission into the treatment of Aboriginal people in WA's criminal justice system. That motion was never debated but Mr Mahon's point was well made.

More than 100 years later, the royal commission he called for is needed more than ever. In January 2008, WA saw the appalling death of respected Warburton Aboriginal elder, Mr Ward, who died while being transported hundreds of kilometres in the back of a prison van in 50 degree heat with no air conditioning or ventilation. On 2 August 2014, a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman, Ms Dhu, died horribly in police custody in South Hedland after being imprisoned for $3,000 in unpaid fines. As CCTV footage aired at the coronial inquest in Perth yesterday graphically showed, while Ms Dhu was moaning in pain and asking for help, police dragged her out of the police lock up by the legs like a carcass and tossed her into the back of the van. Police and staff at Hedland Health Campus dismissed her complaints, accusing her of suffering withdrawals from drug use or 'faking it', whereas she was, in fact, having a heart attack brought on by septicaemia and pneumonia caused by a broken rib. The footage of the last dreadful moments of Ms Dhu's life will not be released publicly because it is too distressing.

This incident, and many, many others, reveal serious issues with our policing, justice and health systems. There has already been one royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, in 1987, but very few of the more than 330 recommendations have been implemented. This is an ongoing blight on our nation.