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

I rise to speak to the Joint Statutory Committee on Law Enforcement report Examination of the Australian Federal Police annual report 2020-21 and 2021-22. In 2020 the AFP announced the establishment of a First Nations unit. The purpose of this unit was to promote full and unhindered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in the AFP's workforce and inform the provision of culturally aware policing services in the Australian community. The AFP's 2020-21 annual report states that this unit will have three initial priorities: embedding cultural awareness, strengthening cultural competence and supporting the AFP's First Nations members. The 2021-22 report states that the AFP will continue to work closely, enhancing partnerships and supporting the front line, which includes the establishment of the AFP's First Nations Advisory Board. This board would have responsibility for 'informing the strategic agenda and specific inclusion initiatives relating to First Nations matters for the AFP'.

As a former police officer and a First Nations woman, I'm glad to see the AFP is taking some action. However, I know firsthand that we, in fact, have a long way to go, not only in the police's dealings with First Nations people but also in the inclusion of First Nations people in police forces around this country. First Nations people have historically been disproportionately targeted by police. We are arrested more, we are more likely to be sentenced, we have longer sentences and, once we're in custody, as we discussed earlier this week, we're more likely to die. This is shameful. There are many stories about the injustices that First Nations people face within our so-called justice system.

The Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency has eight antiracism and cultural diversity principles that are aimed at ensuring that both countries fulfil their obligations under the international treaties, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and anti-discrimination legislation. I would like to highlight some of those to you. The first is to understand and respond to the historical context and ongoing lived experiences of First Nations people. The third is to actively take steps to ensure people from diverse backgrounds are recruited, promoted and retained within police forces. The seventh is to provide police with the awareness, skills and knowledge to enable them to identify and address how their own biases are both learned and unconscious and impact on their decision-making and on their behaviour. All eight of these principles are vitally important for having a diverse police force that understands and respects cultural differences, particularly those of First Nations people. I urge the AFP and all of the state and territory police forces in this country to fully adopt all these principles.

However, time and time again we read about First Nations people being shot, tackled, thrown to the ground and otherwise subjected to very, very brutal treatment. In fact, I had a phone call made to my electoral office last night about this type of behaviour. In my home state of Western Australia, just last year, the WA Police released police dogs onto a 13-year-old boy, which left him hospitalised and needing surgery. The use of police dogs has been covered in a CCC report in Western Australia by the chief, John McKechnie. He said, 'The present policies are not racist in intent but are racist,' by the way that they are carried out. Police dogs are disproportionately used against First Nations people. Some of those people in Western Australia are as young as nine years old. This is not a training issue for the dogs—a myth that some people have alluded to. This is about police officers and handlers having control of those dogs.

I urge both the AFP and other law enforcement agencies in this country to urgently make sure that they are enforcing and implementing those ANZPAA principles to address some of the systemic issues that are happening across police forces in Australia. We clearly have an exceptionally long way to go before First Nations people feel safe and have their own wellbeing looked after in this country. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.