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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges that the gap between life expectancy, health outcomes and incarceration rates of Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal people remains unacceptable;

(b) notes:

(i) the release of the Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage report on 19 November 2014 which finds:

  (A) the adult imprisonment rate increased 57 per cent between 2000 and 2013,

  (B) juvenile detention rates increased sharply between 2000 01 and 2007 08, and have fluctuated since at around 24 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth, and

  (C) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians make up only 2.3 per cent of the adult population, but as of 30 June 2013 made up over a quarter (27.4 per cent) of the adult prison population, and

(ii) that peak Aboriginal organisations have been calling for justice targets to address the unacceptably high incarceration rates of Aboriginal people; and

(c) calls on the Government to take leadership on this issue and introduce a national justice target.

Question agreed to.