Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Australian Greens, I rise to speak in this MPI debate on deaths in custody. As a First Nations woman, I know all too well about the unacceptable rates of deaths in custody in Australia's history and also at present, particularly being from Western Australia, which has the highest number of First Nations deaths in custody. I want to acknowledge the families and the descendants from the town of Roebourne in Western Australia, my home state, which was the catalyst for the royal commission after the death of John Pat.

We don't know exactly how many First Nations people have died in custody since the 1991 royal commission, because it just keeps happening. But we do know that more than 520 First Nations people have died in custody in the last 30 years. I want to take a moment to acknowledge those 520 families and communities that have lost loved ones, taken from them all too soon. My heartfelt thoughts are always with them as we continue to do this work. In itself an unnecessary and cruel lack of action has resulted in their loss. Unfortunately this is not a new issue either. I mentioned earlier the 1991 royal commission into deaths in custody, which produced a list of 339 recommendations, at least 36 per cent of which have not been fully implemented.

We've got a report. What do we need to do now? Why aren't we doing it? It's absolutely shameful. The Greens have continually called for Medicare in prisons. Coroners have stated that this could help reduce deaths in custody. Our deaths while in custody are from health conditions which are in fact treatable, meaning that many deaths are entirely preventable if there is adequate, community controlled and culturally appropriate health care available in custody. Identifying presenting health issues and maintaining people's health whilst they are in prison is vitally important in playing a key role in preventing deaths in custody.

I want to finish by speaking about my time as a police officer in the Western Australian Police. During this time I was responsible for transporting, caring for and processing people in custody. The continuum of this care is important to contextualise and understand the fundamental human rights frameworks based on the UN human rights principles for people in custody. These include:

All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.

There shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

An example of this is the requirement for police officers to conduct cell checks every 20 minutes unless they get an alarm raised for whatever issue may be presented to them. A clear example of that is the case of Ms Dhu. Everyone has the right to be treated with humanity, dignity and respect, and this includes people who are in custody, regardless of time, place and circumstance. But, unfortunately, this is not the case for First Nations people. (Time expired)