Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That Senate take note of the responses to the Senate resolutions Nos. 1 and 2 on the list for today.

That is the response to the motion that went through on incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians, and also the Western Australian Attorney-General's response to a resolution of the Senate relating to the death in custody of Ms Dhu. In fact, Madam Deputy President, you were a co-sponsor of that particular motion.

I do note the government's response from Western Australia, saying that it was not necessarily in their purview to address that particular issue because it was in the hands of the coroner. My response there was to expect some leadership from the Western Australian government to indicate that they were comfortable with the video of Ms Dhu's time in custody to be released publicly, because that is what the motion referred to. It called on the Western Australian government to support the wishes of the family of Ms Dhu, who have been campaigning for a long time to get the video of her time in custody released.

I am pleased to report to the Senate that the coroner decided to revisit that particular issue and in fact revisited that the week before last and has reserved her decision. I am really pleased that the coroner did revisit that decision and reconsider the decision, but I am deeply concerned about the time frame now around her reconsidering that issue and then determining an outcome when the family really are desperate to see this vision released. The longer it takes the more I am concerned about the impact that it has on Ms Dhu's family. But I am pleased that, I think, the resolution of this Senate actually did have an impact in raising this issue and putting on notice and putting on record very clearly the family's wishes to see this vision released. It is a really important point to make: that the Senate resolutions are listen to. They can be very useful, and in this instance I think they were.

This issue is directly related to the other matter that I am talking about in terms of the response to the Senate resolution on incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians. Part of that motion called on Commonwealth and state and territory governments to implement the full recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Ms Dhu died in custody, so these two points are directly linked. I am pleased to see that the South Australian government has responded to that motion.

Their response was from the Minister for Correctional Services and made the point that they have been looking at those recommendations. They said that there are only two of the recommendations that are not implemented and that they are not related to the Department of Correctional Services.

We have not seen responses from other states, but unfortunately we are still seeing deaths in custody of Aboriginal people. Until we do see the implementation of these recommendations we are going to see, unfortunately, this issue continue to be in the headlines and we are going to continue to see Aboriginal deaths in custody, because there are 339 recommendations that have not been implemented. And we are seeing some appalling instances. Don Dale is a classic example of how people are being treated in the system. Again, I am disappointed that the inquiry that was established as a result of the Don Dale situation has not been extended across Australia, because we do need to be addressing these issues.

But we can make a very good start if we actually go back to the report that was now tabled more than 25 years ago—and yet we are still seeing these outrageous incidences. I really, really do not want to be standing up at any more rallies that are rallying because an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person has died in custody. I look forward to hearing the reconsideration by the WA coroner on the release of the vision of Ms Dhu. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.