Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about Australia's appalling high rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to talk about Aboriginal health. Today, the Australian Medical Association launched its report card on Indigenous health, Treating the high rates of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a symptom of the health gap: an integrated approach to both.

This is a very important report that makes a number of very important points. One of the first points it makes is that the report comes on the eve of 25th anniversary, next year, of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and that many of its recommendations have not been met—and I will come back to that point. As the report points out, it is estimated that an Indigenous male born between 2010 and 2012 will live, on average, just over 10 years less than their non-Indigenous peers and an Indigenous female just under 10 years less than her non-Indigenous peers. Life expectancy is a proxy indicator for overall health and wellbeing, as they point out in their report.

The incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, I am hoping everybody in this places agrees, are unacceptably high. The age standardised imprisonment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was 13 times greater than for their non-Indigenous peers in 2015. At the end of the 2015 June quarter, the average daily number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult prisoners was 9,940. Under current projections, for the first time over 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples could be in custody on the night of the annual prison census that will be held on 30 June 2016. At the end of the 2015 June quarter, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples represented 28 per cent of all adult full-time prisoners, despite being only three per cent of our population. They account for approximately two per cent of the total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. It is just outrageous. It is unacceptable.

Most significantly, this report card treats the two gaps as connected—and this is a very important point. While the report acknowledges the range of complex reasons of imprisonment for any individual, it considers the imprisonment gap as symptomatic of the health gap—in other words, the two are intimately connected. In particular, the AMA believe and point out: 'It is possible to isolate particular health issues such as mental health conditions, alcohol and other drug use, substance abuse disorders and cognitive disabilities—the focus of this report card—as amongst the most significant drivers of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These health issues must be part of an integrated approach to also reduce imprisonment rates.' We have to address both of these massive issues. It is quite clear that if we are to address the appallingly high incarceration rates, we need to address the health issues.

The report makes it clear that we cannot address health issues without addressing incarceration rates. As AMA president Professor Owler pointed out: 'It is not credible that we cannot solve this issue. We are talking about three per cent of our population.' It cannot be beyond our wit to address this issue, to solve this issue and it must be a priority.

The report makes five key recommendations. The first is to set a national target for Closing the Gap in the rates of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I beg the government to backdown from their opposition to this target. When the government was opposition, they committed to a justice target. It is quite clear that we need a justice target as part of Closing the Gap. Everybody should be supporting such a target. This issue needs multiparty support. The government got it wrong. Please address this issue.

Their second recommendation is to adopt a justice reinvestment approach to fund the services that will divert Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from prison. We have spoken at length on justice reinvestment in this place. We are starting to see some significant successes coming out of Bourke, where they are running a process of justice reinvestment. We have seen examples from overseas about the value of justice reinvestment. As we have discussed in this chamber on many occasions, there is widespread support for a justice reinvestment approach.

Their third recommendation is to develop service models to support the expansion of ACCHOs, Aboriginal community controlled health organisations, and other services as part of an integrated approach to improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the community—including responding to mental health conditions, substance use disorders and cognitive disabilities based on need—and as a preventative measure to reduce imprisonment rates.

Their fourth recommendation is to partner with ACCHOs, prison health services and other services as appropriate to develop a model of health care that integrates ACCHOs, prison health services and other services to deliver an integrated approach to service provision that aims to improve health and reduce imprisonment rates at the same time. The fifth recommendation is to employ Aboriginal health workers and Indigenous health professionals in prison health services to support them to deliver a culturally competent health service. These are very sensible recommendations; doable recommendations. The report also points out—and this is an area where I am particularly concerned—that in 2012-13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people between the ages of 10 and 17 were 17 times as likely to be under youth supervision as their non-Indigenous peers. We as a nation should be ashamed of those statistics.

As I pointed out at the beginning of my speech, this report comes on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Most of those 339 recommendations, made nearly 25 years ago, have not been implemented, and we should all think very seriously and deeply about what the situation would look like now if those recommendations had been implemented fully. There are still Aboriginal deaths in custody occurring—far too many deaths across Australia. Just think of the lives that could have been saved if we had implemented those recommendations.

This week, in my home state of Western Australia, we saw the inquest into the death of Ms Dhu start. The Premier promised that there would be one. It was a lengthy time in coming, but it is finally being held. The inquest is looking into the issues, and it is quite clear that, if we had had better provisions in place, we would now be reducing those deaths in custody. It is absolutely critical that we address the health gap and the incarceration rate, and this is yet another report that highlights the appalling gap in life expectancy and the appalling incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I agree with Professor Owler: it is not credible that we cannot address this issue. There are recommendations that are already there, and there are a number of others. Let's get a justice target in place. Let's start addressing the issues around incarceration. For a start, it has been pointed out that Ms Dhu was in prison because of unpaid fines. Stopping the incarceration of people for nonpayment of fines is one very achievable way that we can start addressing this issue. I urge everybody to read this latest report from the AMA. It demonstrates those links really clearly.