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

Every time I walk into this building there are more Aboriginal deaths in custody. This year there have been 23 that we know of. In the last month alone there were 10. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, there have been 608 Aboriginal deaths in custody. Not one cop, not one prison guard has ever been held accountable. They're literally getting away with murder. If we marched for every stolen life, we would march for over 2½ years.

These are not just numbers; these are people. The day their lives are taken starts another violent ordeal for their families and communities, fighting for justice for a murder committed at the hands of government. And the government does not want to be held accountable. Every day black fellas are forced to face violent colonial courts, traumatic coronial inquiries, violent police, and government agencies. The result is always devastating: wrongful convictions, families torn apart, homelessness, penalties that entrench poverty and trauma, and zero accountability for the crimes committed against our people.

This is not by accident. It is a well-designed and well-oiled machine, whose ultimate aim has always been to wipe us out of our own country. The only tools to fight back, such as our Aboriginal legal services, are intentionally starved of funding. Meanwhile, those who kill us maintain their badges, their jobs, their privilege and their power and tell a story that criminalises us to avoid accountability. Shame!

This week, the country's eyes were opened once again through exposure to a horrific recording of another racist cop in WA, who shamelessly sent a voice message to her mate. She talked about how a young man told her he was going to take his own life. She ignored his cries for help. The next day he was sent to prison where he sadly took his own life. To laugh and to treat his death as a joke is criminal in itself. What kind of person would do this?

The young man she was speaking about was a proud Noongar, Wongai and Adnyamathanha man and his name is Linton Ryan. He has a family who love, mourn and miss him, including his mother Lynette, his older brother Shannon and his cousin Kyvia, who also spoke to the ABC about his life and death. Before he died, Linton lived in the colonial gold mining town Kalgoorlie, a true apartheid town. He lived in an abandoned rail yard, on cold concrete floors, with another 12 people, with no electricity or running water, and this racist cop had the audacity to laugh and think his life was not worth living. He was too unwell to attend court. Six days later, he took his life. When I talk about war and genocide in this country, you'd think it happened a long time ago. It's still real today, in 2025.