Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In recent weeks we've seen hundreds of thousands of Australians take to the streets to march and to call on the reduction that's necessary in black deaths in custody and, certainly, the high incarceration rates of First Nations people. As a 19-year-old and 20-year-old, as a journalist for the ABC, I covered the royal commission into black deaths in custody, in particular in Darwin, and also the day when Elliott Johnston brought down the recommendations. We could then talk about the names of the 99 people who had died. At the time my colleague Senator Pat Dodson was one of the royal commissioners.

This has been an incredible journey. Yet when we look at the deaths of over 437 or 438—possibly 439—Aboriginal people since then, we don't really know all of their names. I looked through the Australian Institute of Criminology website and saw the statistics, but it is TheGuardian Australia's Deaths Inside database that documents the names. They collected and analysed all available coronial data and other sources to build a searchable database of First Nations deaths in custody since 2008. So we certainly don't know the names of those who died between 1991, when the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were handed down, and 2008. As I said, the Australian Institute of Criminology has the statistics but we don't know the names of those people or the circumstances surrounding their deaths. They're just numbers.

I'd like to take the time that I have now to mention as many names that I can and pay my respects to those families who are still seeking justice for their loved ones and wanting to know what has happened. On 29 March 2020, an unknown male, 30, was arrested and taken to Horsham police station, where his condition deteriorated. He was transported to hospital by ambulance, where he later died. On 21 March this year, TC, female, 40, was found dead in her single cell at Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre. On 2 January this year, Ms Walker, 37, was arrested for shoplifting on 31 December 2019 and denied bail. She was remanded at a maximum security women's prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, and found dead three days later. On 9 November 29, Mr Walker, 19, died after he was shot at Yuendumu when two police officers went to his house to arrest him for breaches of his suspended sentence. On 6 November 2019 an unknown male, 20, fell 10 metres to his death while being escorted from Gosford Hospital to Kariong Correctional Centre.

On 30 October 2019, RN, male, 39, died in Royal Perth Hospital three days after being sedated by paramedics at the direction of police. On 17 September 2019 Ms Clarke, 27, was shot dead by a police officer outside her house in Geraldton in Western Australia. On 12 June 2019, JB, male, 30, was found unresponsive in his cell in Acacia Prison and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. Authorities warned he was suicidal. On 9 April 2019, Cherdeena Wynne, 26, died in hospital five days after she became unresponsive after being handcuffed by police on a side street off Albany Highway. On 14 March 2019, T Walton, 21, was shot multiple times by police who were seeking to question him. On 11 February 2019, A Eades, 46, was allegedly attacked by other prisoners and found critically injured in his prison cell on 26 February 2019. He died in hospital 13 days later. His injuries included a broken neck, severe brain swelling and facial fractures and lacerations.

On 11 September 2018, CD, male, 16, drowned in the Swan River in Perth while trying to escape an on-foot chase by police. On 10 September 2018, TS, male, 17, drowned alongside his best mate, CD, while fleeing police who were chasing him and four other boys on foot following reports of teenagers jumping fences. He and three other teenagers entered the river to escape but only two made it out. On 1 September 2018, Nathan Reynolds, 36, died in custody in the Outer Metropolitan Multi-Purpose Correctional Centre, a minimum security prison in South Windsor, allegedly following a severe asthma attack. On 29 June 2018, DK, male, 34, stopped breathing during arrest while being removed from a house by police. On 3 May 2018, Mr Yeeda, 19, collapsed in West Kimberley Regional Prison in Western Australia and was declared dead less than an hour later at Derby Hospital.

On 10 February 2018, TK, male, 39, became unresponsive after police attended his Townsville home and he was forcibly restrained. On 7 February 2018, Patrick Fisher, 31, fell from a 13th-floor balcony in a Waterloo public housing block in Sydney while allegedly trying to climb down to escape from police. On 3 February 2018, JH, male, 23, was found hanged in his cell at the Junee Correctional Centre in New South Wales two days before he was due to face court. On 22 September 2017, Ms Day, 55, died 17 days after falling in the cells of Castlemaine Police Station after being arrested for public drunkenness. On 4 December 2017, TMH, male, 47, had a heart attack while being loaded into an ambulance and later died in Boulder, Western Australia. On 22 September 2017, Tane Richard Chatfield, 22, was found unresponsive in his cell after being separated from his cellmate and receiving medical treatment for a seizure.

On 22 August 2017, KG, male, 47, was discovered unresponsive in an observation cell at the Adelaide City Watch House. On 8 August 2017, JT, male, 39, died. He had complained of chest pain the day before his death, but prison staff in the Northern Territory mistakenly believed he was complaining of a sore throat. On 4 July 2017, EJW, male, 35, died in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage in prison. He was shackled to the bed in the last days of his life, despite being unconscious and unresponsive. On 25 June 2017, R Thomas, 29, was thrown from his car after an accident while being pursued by a highway patrol car.

On 26 May 2017, PR, male, 50, became unresponsive after being arrested, handcuffed and placed in a prone restraint position by South Australian police outside his house in Parafield Gardens. An ambulance was called, but he was unable to be revived. On 12 May 2017, C Riley, male, 40, died after being shot by police with a stun gun in an Officeworks car park in East Perth. On 29 March 2017, TAS, male, 35, was critically injured when the car he was driving flipped less than a minute after police began a pursuit in Bathurst. He died in hospital a short time later. On 1 March 2017, J Anderson, 23, died in Fiona Stanley Hospital after being found hanged in a 'safe' cell at Hakea Prison. On 4 January 2017, RPN, male, 62, died at Alice Springs Hospital of renal and liver failure while serving a mandatory life sentence.

These are the people that hundreds of thousands of Australians walked the streets for this week and last week, and they will no doubt continue to do so. We don't know some of the other names, or a lot of the other names, but we certainly pay our respects to those families still seeking justice, equality and fairness in our country. We must never stop the pursuit of justice, equality and fairness for all Australians, especially First Nations people.