Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the tabling of the committee report into the indefinite detention of people with cognitive and psychiatric impairment in Australia. This is the first major inquiry that has focused solely on the specific question of the indefinite detention of people with cognitive and psychiatric impairment. As Senator Siewert stated in her contribution, it arose out of a community affairs 2015 inquiry into the violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings.

At its very core, this report provides us with an opportunity to consider and reflect upon the experiences of some of the most vulnerable people in our community. It has allowed us to look to the legislative environment, in which people with disabilities can be subject to misunderstanding and punitive detention. It has also allowed us to measure how our treatment of people with various and diverse cognitive and psychiatric impairments stacks up against Australia's human rights obligations.

The committee received 78 submissions and held six hearings across the country. Significantly, the committee also undertook a number of site visits to facilities and correctional facilities in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The report is structured in two parts to adequately deal with the legislative provisions and processes that govern the pathway to indefinite detention in Australia. The indefinite imprisonment of Australian citizens is, and should always be, a last resort. Even where people have been declared mentally impaired or unfit to plead, it is vital that we have a system that strives to give all people a voice and representation in legal matters, because when we fail to give a voice to the most vulnerable people, we fail to build strong and fair communities.

A number of the committee recommendations reiterate the recommendations of the committee's 2015 inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings. The key matters relating to the indefinite detention of people with cognitive and psychiatric impairments identified in that report remain the same and need to be acted on. As evidence put to the committee explained so well and so clearly, access to justice for people with a disability is more than simply providing a wheelchair ramp into a court room—it is so much more than that. It is about fully supporting a person with disability to appropriately engage with all aspects of the criminal justice system.

I am pleased to say that among the committee's recommendations is the call for each state and territory to implement a disability justice plan. It also recommends that COAG develop and implement a disability screening strategy, including hearing assessments for all Australian jurisdictions. This screening strategy would apply to all adults and minors who engage with the criminal justice system. If this recommendation were adopted, it would mean that the strategy would be applied at multiple points through the criminal justice system, such as a person's first contact with police, courts, prisons and related facilities.

In closing, I would also like to indicate that I am very pleased that one of the recommendations from the committee is that the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme look at an inquiry into the issue of eligibility and access to NDIS supports for people in prisons and in the criminal justice system more broadly.

I would also like to add my thanks to the secretariat, who work very hard on these inquires and who assist and support the committee so well. As Senator Siewert indicated, they have worked very, very hard over this last year, and, with their support, the committee has produced some very good reports. I look forward to the government response to this inquiry, and I also look forward, even though it has been a year coming, to the government's response into the committee's 2015 inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings. I say to senators that this is an important report and they should all seek to have a look at the report and the recommendations that are before them today. I commend the report to this place, and I seek leave to continue my remarks.