Aboriginal Land Councils, Legal Services and Human Rights Commission urge government to address Indigenous incarceration

ABC NEWS (Australia)

At the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, Aboriginal Land Councils, the Human Rights Commission, and Aboriginal Legal Services are urging the federal government to take a stronger role in addressing the soaring numbers of Indigenous people in incarceration.

Transcript

00:00The message from Susan Lee from Kununara in the north of Western Australia was clear.

00:07She says that the actions that were announced by the Prime Minister don't match the requirement on the ground,

00:13what's actually needed to address Closing the Gap, to have a real impact.

00:18Now, she said that it was important for her, at the first opportunity since Parliament rose,

00:23to be going out to communities, to be meeting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,

00:27particularly with her shadow minister and the local member of her team from that part of Western Australia.

00:34But she said that the Prime Minister really needed to outline a plan,

00:39and she really made that point, as many have been saying,

00:41look, the Prime Minister and the government feel like they've moved away from Indigenous affairs post the referendum,

00:48until yesterday's speech, because you got the sense that that was a moment

00:51where the Prime Minister was trying to reset and draw a line in the sand and announce something substantive.

00:57that economics package, which had been spoken about the year before,

01:01but not with any details around the funding, around the structure or the mechanisms about what would happen.

01:06It's important for me to be here, on the ground in the Kimberley,

01:10with 40% of the population Indigenous working on practical actions that work in the real world and the real economy.

01:17And I don't think it's good enough for the Prime Minister to stand there,

01:21deliver a speech, nice words, but not followed with any demonstration of real action.

01:27And look, real action is what has been called for here,

01:31not just broadly, nationally around closing the gap targets,

01:35but also about the policies that have been put in place by the Northern Territory CLP government,

01:41particularly around reducing the age of criminal responsibility,

01:46the introduction of spit hoods in the last couple of days

01:49that are seen as disproportionately affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

01:53And in fact, one of the commissioners of human rights here in the Northern Territory

01:58said those policies are actually going to make things worse.

02:02They're going to lead to more crime, to more antisocial behaviour.

02:07And look, nothing's been done in our communities.

02:09We're still in the same spot, like we were back in the days.

02:12There need to be more accountability and more transparency.

02:15At the moment, there isn't any money should be spent towards our Aboriginal pig organisation

02:20where we know what's best for us.

02:23We know what to deliver.

02:25We know what outcomes we may get if we're the ones that are decision-making for our communities.

02:30In terms of moving forward, we want to see Northern Territory government work with us,

02:33better engagement.

02:35In terms of economics, we want to be part of that.

02:38And that was really Matthew Ryan there, backing in those comments from Selwyn Button,

02:44the Productivity Commissioner, who said,

02:46look, if there are jurisdictions that are not meeting those requirements of close the gap,

02:51the Commonwealth may look at different models around tethering that funding.

02:57To that end, about that comment from Selwyn Button,

03:00which has been a call made by NARJA, the North Australian Justice Agency,

03:04other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations as well,

03:07that was put to Malandiri McCarthy.

03:10She's the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians.

03:13She's also a Senator for the Northern Territory,

03:15an Aboriginal woman from Boralula, not too, too far away from here.

03:19Here's what she said to that question about whether that money should,

03:23there should be greater ties on it of what comes from the Commonwealth

03:26into the Northern Territory.

03:29I spoke in the Senate this week about what we're trying to do at the Commonwealth level.

03:35It is important to be very aware of the fact that nearly 80% of the funding of the Northern Territory

03:43comes from the Commonwealth, and that's not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

03:48or projects, that's actually for all citizens of the Northern Territory.

03:52So we have to be very responsible at the Commonwealth level about how we respond to those requests.

03:59And also in terms of the federal funding agreements of states with the Commonwealth,

04:06again, I would seek input from my colleagues, who I'm really pleased to see have joined me here,

04:12so that this is something that we can all work together collectively on.

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