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

That stick, when I walked in here, had 441 deaths in custody on it. Now we have over 540 deaths in custody. At least back in 1991 this got public attention—but not now. Nobody wants to know about it, even though Labor's own father of reconciliation, Senator Dodson, has called the government out about its inaction. In the last three decades, we have seen government after government letting us down, clearly showing that they don't care. You didn't care, and now you don't care. Each and every one of those lives matter to us and to many people. Some of those people whose lives you threw away were not even sentenced or held for even minor offences, as was the case with Tanya Day, who was arrested because she put her feet on the train seat. She died because she put her feet on the train seat! A whitefella wouldn't be arrested for that.

Labor and the coalition are in a race to the bottom to be tough on crime. However, we all know that social factors are first and foremost in determining crime rates. Most of the recommendations of the royal commission were about social factors to make sure that our people are not being left behind. Every government comes up with new buzzwords on how they are going to deal with black people in this country—'closing the gap'—and they introduce advisory body after advisory body, yet there are no changes on the ground.

More of our people are being incarcerated, more people are dying in custody and more of our people are taking their lives. I talk to blackfellas in prisons, and they tell me about the hanging points. They tell me exactly where the hanging points are in the prison cells. The recommendation talks about the hanging points in these cells, and these young men are telling me where they are and how they tell each other how to hang themselves! You can't blame them; what does their future look like in this country? The system knows about these hanging points, but nothing is being done; it isn't a problem if another one of us dies. Worst of all are the privately operated prisons—those operated by the criminal Serco, which the government loves having on board and paying. Serco are the real criminals here; they're the ones hurting and killing our people. All this is allowed because there is still wide-ranging systemic racism in this country. It's in all institutions, but first and foremost in the police. Police violence against First Nations people is off the chart in this country.

All your voices to parliament and all your closing the gap Garmin statements are all worth nothing, because you ain't saving our people's lives in this country. So do it! Get the 339 recommendations from the royal commission that this country paid for and implement them now. Black lives matter in this country! Stop killing us! (Time expired)