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

I rise to contribute to this adjournment debate. I would like to honour the life of Wayne 'Fella' Morrison. Wayne 'Fella' Morrison was a proud 29-year-old Wiradjuri, Kokatha and Wirangu man. He was a loving father, a keen outdoorsman, a fisherman and an artist. He was a gentle and kind man. He is loved deeply by his family, and they miss him terribly, every single day.

In September 2016, police officers forced a spit hood on Wayne's head. They cuffed his wrists and ankles at Yatala Labour Prison, and he was thrown facedown in a van. A spit hood is a mesh fabric device that covers your mouth. It covers your face and often your head too, making it difficult to breathe. They are often forcefully pulled on to a person's head and secured with an elastic band around the neck—imagine that! Let's be clear: spit hoods are torture devices. Tragically, Wayne was pulled unconscious from that van and died three days later from causes including asphyxia.

We don't really know what happened in that van. There's no CCTV footage. At this stage officers are still refusing to give evidence. No-one has been held accountable, so the fight continues. There's no justice. Wayne's family continues to fight for justice every day. They have achieved something absolutely remarkable this month because they didn't give up the fight. On 18 November the South Australian lower house voted on 'Fella's Bill' to permanently ban the use of spit hoods in South Australia. Wayne's family's fight for justice meant that South Australia was the first jurisdiction to ban the use of spit hoods by law. The first jurisdiction—what does that mean? Every other jurisdiction gets away with it. Since Fella's death his family have been demanding a ban on spit hoods to prevent any other family from having to go through that intense anguish and pain of having a loved one killed by the criminal legal system. This is a pain that our people know all too well. This ban on spit hoods also shows how preventable deaths in custody are, particularly Aboriginal deaths in custody, which you all keep ignoring—we can change this with political will and courage. We don't see much of that in here, obviously.

I honour the work of Wayne's family, and I demand that this parliament, and, in fact, all parliaments, pass legislation to ban the use of spit hoods. Around the world international human rights organisations have called for an end to the use of spit hoods by police and prison officers. Many people have died or been seriously inquired. Spit hoods are a threat to human life, dignity and safety. If spit hoods had been banned, Fella might still be here. Spit hoods are state-sanctioned torture devices. We will never forget the image out of the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre when 13-year-old brother Dylan Voller was strapped to a chair and spit-hooded by prisoner officers.

This is the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We have to stop torturing black people in this country—240 years of torture has to stop. (Time expired)