Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens strongly support this motion. On Tuesday 27 May, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu, Kumanjayi White, died in custody after being restrained by plain-clothes NT police members inside the Coles supermarket in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. He was a young man living with a disability, and he was in town accessing care and services. Our hearts go out to Mr White's family, friends and community. I cannot imagine the grief and loss that they're experiencing at this time. The Australian Greens offer our deepest condolences and wish them the space and the time for grief and mourning. We stand in solidarity with the Yuendumu and Warlpiri communities. We join their calls for justice, and we echo the family's demands for an independent investigation, for the officers involved to be stood down, for the release of CCTV and body camera footage and for the Northern Territory police to apologise for and cease publicly criminalising Kumanjayi White in their statements.

This week, we learned, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology's live dashboard, that there have been 602 First Nations deaths in custody since the royal commission concluded in 1991. It is a shameful indictment on us all that so many of the recommendations from that royal commission remain unfulfilled. This government and this parliament must be leaders who push our states and territories to do more until we implement those recommendations in full and address the structural racism that exists in the justice system.

Kumanjayi White's death occurred as the final coronial report on the 2019 death in custody of another Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi Walker, was due to be published. That inquest exposed deep failures of justice and found the Northern Territory police to be 'an organisation with hallmarks of institutional racism'. In the NT, 84 per cent of incarcerated adults are Aboriginal, despite Aboriginal adults only making up 25.9 per cent of the NT adult population. One hundred per cent of young people imprisoned in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal. Many of those adults and young people are on remand, yet to be convicted. These alarming trends represent a longstanding failure of the justice system to address underlying causes of harm and violence. Funding needs to shift from policing and prisons to community focused solutions led by First Nations people.

The family of Kumanjayi Walker and the Yuendumu community, alongside 23 Aboriginal community family violence and legal organisations, published an open letter earlier this week, calling on the Finocchiaro Northern Territory government to publicly commit to the findings and recommendations of Coroner Armitage in the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker and to engage with First Nations communities and the legal sector. It said, in part:

Aboriginal people have the solutions and now is the time to work with us to ensure that our people thrive and our children grow up safe and supported. Change is not only possible, but also well overdue.

…   …   …

Warlpiri people and all Aboriginal people want lasting change that uplifts our people and ensures a strong, healthy future for generations to come. We do not need to be "fixed" by others—now is the time to genuinely listen, to clear the path for our autonomy, and to provide the resources and support that will enable us to shape our own future. This is what will bring lasting solutions and restore trust. These are not only the right things to do, they are essential steps to prevent needless loss of life and build a better future for all. We are ready to work together for profound, lasting change. We urge you to act now and to act boldly.

The Greens strongly support their calls for an independent and robust mechanism for police accountability in the Northern Territory—and everywhere, frankly—and for greater investment in community-controlled services.

A genuine investment in community rather than policing has never been more urgent, as the NT has reduced the age of criminal responsibility to the age of 10 and they're now shamefully moving to reintroduce spit hoods, which are a recognised form of torture. And we're only on track to meet four of the 19 Closing the Gap targets. It is shameful.

We acknowledge the profound grief and anger felt by Kumanjayi Walker's family, the Warlpiri and Yuendumu communities and First Nations people across the country. We express our sorrow over his death and for the racism, violence and systemic over-incarceration of First Nations people that's led to 602 losses of life. The time to act is now. (Time expired)