Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

People in custody have a right to culturally safe and equitable healthcare services. They should be leaving prison in better health than when they entered the system, but the opposite is the case, as they are denied crucial healthcare services. The current system is failing.

Unnatural deaths in custody continue to occur at shamefully higher rates than in the community—many of them, resulting from preventable health issues. Just this week there has been another Aboriginal death in ACT custody, that of TJ Dennis. TJ had serious mental health issues, but, rather than making sure he got the support he needed, prison staff included him in a hangman game in their tearoom. Shame! My thoughts are with his family and community.

Early and preventable deaths amongst blackfellas have become so normalised that people hardly blink an eyelid. To meet our human rights obligations, governments must ensure universal access to culturally safe and equitable health care. Allowing access to Medicare is one part of achieving this, starting with a few crucial item numbers, as well as improving access to PBS medicines, the NDIS, social and emotional wellbeing services, drug and alcohol support and sexual and reproductive health services for women, trans and gender-diverse people. We need mechanisms for routine and independent assessment of prison health care and proper oversight of prison operations, including implementing the national preventive mechanisms under OPCAT. Finally, we must properly resource First Peoples community controlled— (Time expired)