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

Today I want to honour Heather Calgaret, a proud Yamatji, Noongar, Wongi and Pitjantjatjara woman who died in custody in 2021 after being found unresponsive in her cell at Victoria's Dame Phyllis Frost prison by her sister. Heather was a mother of four, a loving sister, a gifted artist and the rock of her family. This week, the coroner found that her death was entirely preventable. Heather was given the wrong medication and left without proper monitoring. Her newborn had just been taken. She was denied parole despite being eligible. Every one of these failures contributed to her death.

This is not new. Aboriginal women have sounded the alarm about our treatment in prison for years. We lost Veronica Nelson in a similar way. Premier Allan, of the Labor Victorian government, says she's listening to the coroner, but this week she's winding back bail reforms that were introduced after Veronica's death—laws recommended by the coroner that we fought hard to change. This will lock up even more of our people, especially our women and children. This is shameful hypocrisy, saying the right things to one grieving family while betraying another. We need action from federal Labor. If they're serious about addressing deaths in custody, they need to take a stronger stance by withholding funding from states and territories doing harm. Without federal intervention, incarceration rates will keep rising, and so will deaths. For Heather and for every life stolen by state violence in this country, we demand action.