Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In August 2014 Ms Dhu died in tragic, preventable circumstances in a South Hedland police cell. Police who were responsible for her wellbeing and safety failed Ms Dhu. In fact, according to The Age newspaper, evidence to the recent coronial inquest into Ms Dhu's death showed that police officers 'mocked, ignored or dismissed' her calls for help. It is extremely concerning that the last words Ms Dhu heard before she died may have been that she was 'faking it' and to 'shut up'.

The WA Premier, Colin Barnett made a 'personal commitment' to work with ministers in reducing the number of Aboriginal people in the state's jail system and deaths in custody. 'I will do that, you then judge me on whether I succeed or not, but I give you that commitment today,' he told the family, who attended a public protest at the state Parliament House in 2014. Well the Premier has done nothing. More recently, the federal member for Pearce and former WA Attorney-General, Christian Porter, had this to say:

My view when attorney-general is the same view I hold now, being that if a person refuses to pay their fines, or refuses to enter into a time-to-pay program, imprisonment must remain a final option otherwise hoons, vandals and anti-social offenders would be allowed to commit crimes without an ultimate consequence

What a heartless, uninformed point of view.

The death of Ms Dhu in police custody should be of concern to all of us. There is a crisis in the incarceration of ATSI peoples, best summed up in a poem by Dion Harris, Ms Dhu's uncle.

I think of my niece & the pain she endured

Them nights in the cells when her voice wasn't heard

The cruel, sick mistreatment at the hands of the law

Must surely be exposed in a criminal court

But for W.A. Police it's a grain in the ocean

'Cause they mistreat their "Blacks" with love & devotion

Their record on it's own could stand mountain high

'Cause we all know how many of our family have died

They say that there is more than one way to skin a cat

And I think Australian governments have often showed us that

For they've killed us & maimed us in so many different ways

And we've suffered from birth to the end of our days

But this type of murder it really was callous

So nasty it would make South Africa jealous

They murdered my niece there's no other way to say it

She could've been saved with antibiotics instead of delaying it

So gather your ears our international friends far & wide

Because you know it was legal murder the way my beautiful niece died

My brother's led the fight to try & get our family justice

Please support us in our fight against this island full of racists.