White heat: Blacks deaths

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was one of hundreds of inquiries over the years that have investigated the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and reported on the things that affect us.

It took nearly four years. It cost millions of dollars.

To date, it has been the most progressive and comprehensive of such reports. It made far reaching recommendations about the future of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships in Australia. Tragically, ten years on, there has been little change.

Indigenous peoples make up 1 in 50 of the total population. In the custodial population we represent 1 in 5. The cost to the Australian taxpayer, is $255 million a year.

If non-Indigenous people were jailed at the same rate as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australia would see a national prison population of nearly a quarter of a million people. Imagine the outcry.

But it is not just adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are locked up. A recent report highlighted that our children are now being taken from their homes and put in institutional care at higher rates than before.

The Royal Commission was established by the Hawke Government in August 1987 in response to public alarm.

Indigenous deaths in custody were too common; public explanations appeared too evasive.

The public agitation was led by members of the Aboriginal community including the Committee to Defend Black Rights. Many were convinced of foul play.

The Royal Commission was conducted in an atmosphere of controversy, suspicion and hostility. It generated a lot of white heat. The heat of anger by black Australia of its treatment by white Australia.

The heat of anger of white Australia that the story was at last to be told and white Australia needed to respond to the criticisms and challenges.

The Royal Commission found that Indigenous people, did not, and do not, commit more crimes than non-Indigenous people. Racism and discrimination across all levels of the system go more to explaining the reason why so many more are arrested.

It found Indigenous peoples were:

• more likely to be arrested for trivial offences
• to be charged rather than cautioned
• more likely to be arrested than charged by summons
• less likely to be bailed
• less likely to be offered alternate sentencing options

The odds were weighted against each of the 99 people who died but there was a bigger story to be revealed in the report.

In effect the Royal Commission found that, rather than being a matter of simple punishment, jailing was a continuing crime against Indigenous people where white Australia in its dominant place in society imposed a white system of punishment.

The Royal Commission found that it was the weight of history and continuing practices of discrimination that were directly responsible for a custody rate that far outstripped that for white Australia.

Some 60 per cent of the Commission's recommendations related to reform of the criminal justice system and custodial practices.

Fundamental to its approach was that imprisonment be used a last resort. Diversionary programs should be used more often.

The initial acceptance of the Royal Commission recommendations by Federal, State and Territory governments has now been dismissed by some states with zero tolerance policing and mandatory sentencing introduced.

This illustrates that racism and discrimination is still rife, and maybe increasing, ten years on.

The other 40 per cent of the recommendations required a fundamental shift in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the rest of the population.

It also dealt in detail with:

• Drugs and health
• Schools and education
• Employment and economic opportunity
• Housing and infrastructure.

The term used to describe these recommendations was 'underlying issues' .

At last there was a recognition that underlying issues were essential to the equation - part of the problem and part of the solution.

The Royal Commission said self determination was the key.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples needed to be given control over their own destinies. But most of the underlying issues remain.

For instance:

• Life expectancy is 20 years shorter for Indigenous people.
• The unemployment rate is nearly 50 per cent if you do not include the Work For The Dole scheme. * 50% of Indigenous income units are less than the poverty line.

Since the Royal Commission:

• Deaths in custody have not declined
• Adult Indigenous people are being jailed more than ever.
• Our kids are being incarcerated at unacceptably high rates.

Federal and State Governments all accepted the principles of the report.

Indigenous people were keen to be involved and bring to reality the many positives in the report which would bring hope to us to be able to live normal lives - lives without constant fear, tragedy and grief.

So what has gone wrong?

It is fair to say there has been some improvement at the margins.

• A reduction in deaths in police cells in favour of prisons
• Cross cultural training for the police, the judiciary and custodial staff
• A small growth in Indigenous community-based schemes for cell and prison visitors, night patrols and Indigenous-run community programs for offenders.

But we are still playing at the edges. These are band-aid measures.

In my view the way forward recommended by the Royal Commission has been lost between the narrow vision of a national government and vote buying law and order campaigns at State and Territory level. The white heat appears to have gone from the debate.

The Commonwealth government's policy directions towards Indigenous people is very narrowly focused on health, housing, education and employment which it describes as 'practical reconciliation'. It directly opposes a policy of self-determination for Indigenous peoples. Instead there is a focus on the welfare mould and calls to 'get off welfare'.

There is much talk of mutual obligation. But it appears to run only one way. Indigenous people feel that white Australia has an obligation to us to reverse the trends highlighted 10 years ago and which show no sign of diminishing.

White Australia needs to understand that Indigenous people have the energy, will and desire to do things for themselves. Millions of Australians have demonstrated their support for reconciliation, a process which stemmed directly from the Royal Commission.

In my view we need to ensure all of those non-Indigenous Australians who have marched for reconciliation realise its achievement must involve recognition. Their attention and their support - their white heat, if you like, must be harnessed to point they way to an acceptance by our national government of self determination.

We need them to lobby their local, State and Federal MP's to support self determination. Until there is recognition and action on this at the national level, our aspirations for self-determination will never be realised ... and the fundamental issues clearly addressed by the Royal Commission will never be properly implemented.

National action needs to be matched by fundamental reform at the State level. State election campaigns too often slide into vote buying law and order auctions.

Worryingly, both sides of politics in Western Australia committed to increasing compulsory jailing regimes during the recent State election campaign.

The introduction of mandatory sentencing in Western Australia and the Northern Territory is of major concern. These laws strike at the heart of the Royal Commission findings. Obscenely, this policy has compulsorily jailed petrol sniffers for receiving as little as $2 worth of petrol to feed their addiction.

Tragically, it has led to the death of a mentally disturbed boy in detention on minor theft charges, with evidence on the public record that he should not have been jailed at all.

Even in States like Victoria which have done more than most in implementing the Royal Commission recommendations we still have major anomalies. Ten years after the Royal Commission recommended its decriminalisation, public drunkeness is still a criminal offence in Victoria.

About a quarter of all Aboriginal arrests in Victoria are for public drunkenness. As many of you would know Aboriginal peoples drink far less proportionately than non-Indigenous Australians but those that do tend to do so to excess. This is a social problem not one of criminality.

I hope I have demonstrated that there has been little action to address the fundamental issues raised by the Royal Commission. That is not to say there has not been a lot of talk.

Since the tabling of the Royal Commission, Federal and State governments have regularly provided reports on their progress towards implementing its recommendations. But Indigenous people were so concerned at the high levels of deaths in custody, an Indigenous Summit was held in Canberra in February, 1997 to discuss the failure of governments to resolve the underlying issues identified.

It was recommended these be discussed at a Summit of Commonwealth, state and territory ministers to be held in July of that year. The summit was attended by 20 Commonwealth, State and Territory ministers and Indigenous representatives. The enthusiasm to attend was not matched by a sense of urgency to get results.

The states and territories (with the exception of the Northern Territory) did agree to develop strategic plans for the coordination, funding and delivery of Indigenous programs and services.

The strategic plans would include 'working towards the development of multilateral agreements between commonwealth, state and territory governments and Indigenous peoples and organisations to further develop and delivery programs'.

This statement was signed by commonwealth, state and territory governments except the Northern Territory. But it contained no timetable and no benchmarks.

ATSIC and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner did not sign. We saw no point in signing an open ended document with no established process for accountability.

So the two main tasks identified by the Royal Commission remain.

* State and Territory authorities need to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission and use gaol as a last resort - keep our people out of your prisons

* Governments need to redirect the resources, being used to keep our people in poverty, to support our efforts to manage our communities and find ways forward

Lets' face it ATSIC can not solve these problems. We are not resourced to do so. But we can work in partnership with all governments and communities to find workable solutions. That is our role.

We want a commitment from government that practices which discriminate against our people will be eradicated from their justice systems, their eduction systems and their welfare regimes. We want the resources to enable communities to find ways out of the welfare traps they are caught in.

We expect to be central to government decision making, not to be kept on the margins. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the country want to be listened to by decision makers. We can reach an accommodation, but it must be on just terms.

I challenge all of our political leader at the national and state level to show the courage required to ensure the Royal Commission recommendations are implemented in full. If not we will be here again in ten years wondering what went so horribly wrong.