Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have already mentioned in this chamber the history of discrimination against first peoples in this country. That manifests in a whole range of ways—education, health and economic outcomes for First Australians lie way behind those of the broader community. Of course, incarceration rates are one of the most stunningly disproportionate. In this country Indigenous men are more likely to go to jail than they are to go to university. By some measures we are the most incarcerated people in the world.

According to the Productivity Commission, the adult imprisonment rate for Aboriginal people increased 77 per cent between 2000 and 2015. For juvenile detention of Aboriginal children, Aboriginal young people are incarcerated at 24 times the rate of the rest of the community. You only have to look at the Don Dale experience to see what this means. These are real, human stories. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters separated by a justice system are sometimes subjected to horrific abuse.

As my good colleague the member for Lingiari will tell you, the territory has the nation's highest rate of young people in detention. Ninety-four per cent of young people in detention in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal children. These are children who, in many ways, are incredibly disadvantaged. But how can it be that 94 per cent of children locked up in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal? And the numbers do not get any better on the top part of Western Australia and through much of that state. In my own state of New South Wales 50-odd per cent of young people locked up are Aboriginal. The story is not much better in other states and territories.

UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has described the situation in Australia as disturbing. On her last visit she said:

There should be a justice target that will look into the high levels of Indigenous people [in prison along with] the funds that are provided to be used for prevention, reintegration and diversion programs.

My question is a fairly straightforward one and goes to the heart of what the special rapporteur and Labor have been calling on for a number of years to the COAG process and to the closing the gap process. We have been asking that a justice target be included in that process.

Tony Abbott steadfastly refused to do it, and there is still no take-up of adding a justice target into the Bringing them home targets. It would, at least, put a marker for state governments, and I am sure state and territory governments will be interested in having that discussion. We are not playing politics with this, because these are real people's lives that are dramatically affected by incarceration. Look at many of the Aboriginal people incarcerated in remand and in jails in the south—I cannot speak for the north, member for Lingiari. Many of those people are in jail for six months or less for minor things, like driving offences. There must be a better way to deal with it.

Part of that is putting in a justice target to the COAG process. That would make us all more accountable, for those of us in the federal parliament but also for state and territory governments. That accountability, that target, would drive more effort in bringing down the incarceration rates. I was well around in 1987-88 when the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths took place. Many of us were. I very much remember what that said, and I have recently read the recommendations from the royal commission.

My question is to the minister representing the minister in the other place. Why won't the government sit down with the states and territories and heed the calls of Labor, the community sector, Indigenous leaders and the United Nations and do something to reverse this terrible trend?

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