Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of answers provided in question time today by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs in relation to concerns raised by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda. A week ago, the government announced it was breaking yet another promise: it was going to scrap the promise to bring in a Closing the Gap target for incarceration rates. In response to this, Mr Gooda said, 'Australia was better at keeping Aboriginal children in jail than in school.' I thought his comment was spot on because it highlights that in this country we are trying to lock away the problems rather than solve them. Locking away the problems is easier than working hard to come up with complex solutions.

The Abbott government's cuts of half a billion dollars to Indigenous affairs is hurting Aboriginal people in this country and the claims that these cuts are not to front-line services have been proven wrong. You cannot rip out half a billion dollars without having an effect. Everybody knows this, including Mr Gooda, which is why he said that in the first 12 months, this minister has overseen an upheaval in the Indigenous affairs portfolio which has caused, 'widespread uncertainty and stress, particularly amongst Aboriginal communities.' Mr Gooda also said that there had been little or no consultation with those working at the coalface. He also said that government plans will create one of the largest upheavals in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

The minister should take these concerns very seriously and not dismiss Mr Gooda's views with such arrogance, as he displayed today in the Senate. On this issue, the government is not listening and Aboriginal people feel like their concerns are falling on deaf ears. I say to the Prime Minister, if you are going to be the Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs then the first thing you must do is open up your ears. The Prime Minister acknowledged that his cuts are hurting. He must acknowledge that the changes he has made are not working. He must acknowledge that all we have are broken promises.

The Prime Minister should read Mr Gooda's report because the report says that the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as both victims and offenders in the criminal justice system is one of the most urgent human rights issues facing Australia today. Sadly, in the Northern Territory we are going backwards—Aboriginal people are held in detention without any conviction. There are Aboriginal people who have been determined by a court to be unfit to plead guilty due to their intellectual disabilities who have never been convicted but languish in prison for years. This is a clear breach of human rights. There are people who are locked up without conviction because they suffer from alcoholism. They have committed no crime and have not been charged with any offence, but they are locked up against their will in conditions doctors have warned could lead to death. We have seen this occur through ignorance. Tragically, a few weeks ago an Aboriginal woman died in custody, and all the Northern Territory government tried to do was cover up the death. Of course, these alcohol prisons are racially based. Ninety-nine per cent of those who are locked up are Aboriginal. When a non-Aboriginal person gets drunk in the pub and falls over, they do not end up in these alcohol prisons, but, if an Aboriginal person drinks in a park, the solution is to lock them up.

A facility that was deemed unsuitable for adults is being used now for our children. Young children are being held in isolation. The Northern Territory government has changed legislation so that prison officers now can ignore medical practitioners and deny an inmate medical attention. None of this will work to reduce incarceration rates. In fact, the evidence on what works is being ignored—again going back to chapter 4 of Mr Gooda's report, where he outlines what is working. I urge everyone on the crossbench to read what Mr Gooda has said. One of the programs he talks about is one in Bourke. The program is called Maranguka, which simply means 'to give to the people', 'caring' and 'offering help'. They engage locals. They empower young people rather than lecture them.

I could talk about this for hours, because it is such an important thing. The Prime Minister needs to read this report to understand what is working. I suspect that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs have broken their promise on the Closing the Gap target for incarceration rates because they do not think that they will meet any meaningful target, but, through justice reinvestment, we can. Mr Gooda has stated in his report that he is severely disappointed that the minister is backing away from his previous commitment to justice targets. He outlines why justice targets are so important if we are going to achieve a reduction in both offenders and victims. We need to end the approach of simply locking up problems that appear too hard to solve.