Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I want to throw one more question on the table for the minister. He will probably have all night to cogitate on it, because we have to finish up soon. I will not respond at length to Senator Evans; it is a complex area. The rate of imprisonment for Indigenous people is an absolute scandal, but, unlike others, I do not pretend to have all the answers to that. I think it is an incredibly difficult issue to deal with, particularly when you are talking about the rate for young Indigenous people. It is absolutely extraordinary. I think it is over 25 per cent, which is just horrendous. As Senator Evans said, the percentage of women in prison who are Indigenous is, I think, over 50 per cent in some states, which is mind-blowing. It goes far beyond what the government could hope to achieve through these amendments. But I do not think that taking out the scope for cultural practices to be taken into account in sentencing is going to help reduce that problem. I think it is quite a separate issue, frankly.

As was pointed out last year when we had this debate, and in terms of the amendments to the Crimes Act, the amendments and the resolution that Senator Evans read out regarding the COAG agreement talked about making amendments to the law if necessary. The key point that needs to be emphasised is that customary law does not excuse child sexual assault. So, if you are talking about sentencing for a child sexual assault offence, customary law is not going to be relevant as a mitigating factor anyway if it is properly put forward and considered by a court. I concede that, on rare occasions, it has not been properly considered but, as far as I know, that has always been remedied via an appeal process. That is why I think it is an area where, on face value, it may make some sense, but on closer examination it does not; it is actually discriminatory and unhelpful. Those are precisely the sorts of points that have been made by many of the Law Reform Commission reports and the like that have looked at this sort of area, and none of them has recommended going down this path. All of them have seen the equity. This is not a special measures treatment; this is an equity treatment—that cultural practices for Indigenous people should be considered.

I know the minister was fairly disparaging about the recommendations of the Little children are sacred report, but there are four recommendations in there that go to offender rehabilitation. Is the government going to take any of those into account? What else is it doing with regard to offender rehabilitation? With regard to this wider issue, given that it is an issue for the long haul, what else is the government planning to do with regard to some of the other activities that have been tried in various states? I will not go through them all now; I do not have the time. In Queensland we have things like the Murri Court, which seek to involve elders and others in the sentencing process and in the rehabilitation process. Is any consideration being given at this stage to those sorts of things? Obviously we are talking about reducing child sexual assault and other violence, and those sorts of things have to be part of the package. One of the problems, certainly at state level—and I presume in the territories—is resourcing, apart from anything else.