Senate debates

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Adjournment

Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

7:31 pm

Photo of Sue LinesSue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Last week in this place I paid my respects to a 22-year-old woman who died in a police lockup in the Pilbara and I asked why it had happened. Tonight I wish to continue my remarks in relation to the death in custody of Miss D.

It is now 52 days since Miss D died in police custody in a cell in the Pilbara town of South Hedland and the silence from the police and the Barnett state government is deafening. There should be an outcry. Instead there is silence. There have been two public comments made by the state, and both are defensive. There has been not one shred of sympathy shown to Miss D's family, not one condolence motion, not one promise to undertake an independent investigation, nothing.

The WA Country Health Service regional director, Ron Wynn, defended the level of care of healthcare professionals at Hedland Health Campus but refused to say whether a doctor had examined Miss D on the two occasions she was taken to the hospital before she died. The only comment from the WA Attorney General, presumably in relation to this matter, is that warrants of commitment serve as a deterrent. This just goes to show that the Attorney General does not have a clue what he is talking about. Just what are they a deterrent from? Offending? Paying off your fine? What? In Miss D's case she was taken into mandatory custody after allegedly not paying a fine for an offence, which according to media reports was unpaid parking fines. So what is the deterrent?

The interim autopsy report came back inconclusive, but what it did find should be ringing alarm bells. It noted old fractures of two ribs with a 'possible refracture' of one, bleeding in and around the lungs, a head wound and dried vomit in Miss D's mouth, nose and all over her body. This report concerns me greatly. Why isn't this cause for comment from the state government? Why hasn't the state government given assurances to the family that this inconclusive autopsy will warrant further investigations and that they will be undertaken?

The WA Attorney General revealed that Miss D suffered an apparent heart attack and died within 20 minutes of arriving at the hospital. This was revealed in a recent radio interview. Was this news to Miss D's family? Did they learn of this heart attack on the radio? How does the Attorney General know this? He obviously has more information than the family. What else does he know and why is he keeping it to himself?

I certainly did not take comfort from this interview that Miss D's death would receive special priority or even that the Attorney General thought the death a tragedy. His only comment: it is always 'unfortunate'. What is unfortunate is that the Attorney General missed an opportunity to convey his sympathies and condolences to Miss D's family, who are quite beside themselves with grief. Again he defended the use of warrants of commitment and refused to be drawn on what the fines were for. Apparently, that is a matter under investigation. Why can't the Attorney General explain what the charge was that Miss D was convicted and fined for? Why is that a secret matter and part of an investigation? We do know that whatever offence Miss D committed did not and never did warrant a custodial sentence. We do not know if and what options were offered to Miss D to pay her fine and we have no proof that failure to pay her fines did not in and of itself automatically warrant jail time. None of this should be secret. Committing an offence and being fined, even failure to pay the fine, did not cause Miss D's death. This information obviously known by the Attorney General and should be made public.

So 52 days after the death of Miss D, what do we have? We have the police investigating the police and we have evidence being gathered for the coroner but, of course, we do not know how long Miss D's family will have to wait to get justice or to understand why Miss D died or who was responsible. We do know that coronial inquests in Western Australia, particularly if they are the deaths in custody and particularly if they are Aboriginal deaths, seem to take years and years. We are still waiting for the coronial inquest report on the death in custody of another Aboriginal woman in Broome two years ago. Surely, we as a community and as politicians are not going to let Miss D's family wait two years to find out what happened.

The police have told us, and in fact the Attorney-General has told us, that six interviews have already been undertaken. We do know that if you are a celebrity, a coronial inquest is done in rapid time. If you look at the Peter Brock case, that coronial inquest took a matter of months. So why is it that we still do not know the reasons that a woman who died in custody in Broome two years ago? The deaths in custody of Aboriginal people must stop. The state government in Western Australia must give these deaths a greater priority and if there is anything that the Abbott government should be doing this must be done as well. After all, we have a Prime Minister who says he is the Prime Minister for Aboriginal people, and yet these deaths in custody at the hands of the state in Western Australia continue.

On Sunday there was a memorial service held for John Pat. Thirty-one years ago that young 16-year-old boy died in a police lock-up in the Pilbara. How much longer do Aboriginal people in Western Australia have to wait? We do know that the incarceration rates of Aboriginal women in WA are climbing alarmingly. We are taking mothers, wives and grandmothers and incarcerating them. At the moment there is something like 230 young children without their mothers because they are in jail, and they will be in jail for the non-payment of fines and for all sorts of minor offences.

This should be unacceptable to us. This is not the way that people should be treated. I heard people in this place say today that Aboriginal people should be treated the same as everyone else. Well, that is not the case in Western Australia. If you are an Aboriginal person in the state of Western Australia, you cannot be guaranteed the same justice that I or members of my family would get because we are not Aboriginal. This has got to stop. It is time for Colin Barnett to take action on this matter and it is time for Minister Scullion to ask the Barnett government what is going on in WA. Why do we continue to have Aboriginal people locked up for parking fines and dying in custody? Just four days after being arrested Miss D was dead at the age of 22 with a shocking autopsy report that should ring alarm bells. I urge the government to act and to act now for an independent investigation.