Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just an hour ago I spoke about police violence. Last weekend, tragically, police violence got completely out of hand in Mareeba, where a First Nations man, Aubrey Donahue, who was just in his 20s, was shot dead by police. My thoughts are with his family and community. I know your pain, your questions, your anger and your desperation. Another one of our young people's lives has been taken at the hands of police—at the hands of this racist system.

We all know that police are much more likely to use violence against blakfullas than others, yet they have never, ever been held accountable. The police are supposed to be your friend and helper, yet to our communities police intervention is not helpful at all. Most of the time, they do nothing but cause more harm. Aubrey's community is demanding to know what happened. Why shoot to kill? There are many other ways to de-escalate a situation. We need to hold police accountable and not let them get away without consequences.

Blak lives matter. What happened to Aubrey is yet another sign of this country being in a deaths in custody crisis and again underlines the need, after 32 years, to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody so that the underlying factors of this crisis can be addressed. We cannot allow any more lives to be lost. This government can act, but it just won't.