Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President, and I thank Senator Siewert for her question. Unquestionably, as a government we have made it very, very clear that we want to work with the states and territories, who have responsibility for the justice system, to make sure that we deliver better outcomes for Indigenous Australians, and, particularly, to deal with the issue of incarceration and improved justice and community safety outcomes. We also want to make sure that we work with Indigenous Australians, the peaks and Indigenous people to make sure that we are delivering the outcomes that they so desperately want. There is no question that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are overrepresented in our adult and youth justice systems, both as offenders and as victims. This is seen upstream, particularly in the child protection system. But we also need to remember that Indigenous Australians are less likely to die in custody than non-Indigenous Australians. As the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found, the fundamental issue is that there are too many Indigenous Australians in custody, too often. So it must go without saying that the most important thing—