Wednesday, 10 June 2020

Indigenous Incarceration Update: uncomfortable politics




Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now?
Romeo & Juliet Act 4, scene 5

Indigenous incarceration has been in the news for the last week or so, driven by the upswell in concern internationally of the treatment of African Americans by that nation’s police forces. There have been numerous articles in the media (link here to just one of many) , and the media pressure has led the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians to issue a statement (link here).

The Minister’s statement is replete with platitudes and rhetoric, and lacks any commitment to new action apart from the suggestion that the refreshed Closing the Gap targets developed in partnership with First Nations interests would include an as yet unspecified target. I recommend readers examine it closely for themselves.

In particular, what is missing is any direct reference to the reform agenda provided by the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2016 Inquiry into the Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, initiated at the request of the current Government, and undertaken by Judge Matthew Myers, the first Indigenous judge appointed to the Federal Court.

My April 2020 post (link here) on the lack of implementation commitment and action by the present Government on this issue is a stark reminder of what is at stake. As I stated in that post (do read the full post):

What is crystal clear is that two years on, the Australian government as well as the states and territories who are primarily responsible for our criminal justice systems have done absolutely nothing.

In his approach to this issue, the Minister for Indigenous Australians (I use his title advisedly) is trying to walk astride a barbed wire fence, one leg on the side of Indigenous Australians, the other leg on the side of a Government determined to manage the issue rather than address its substantive and underlying causes. He must be feeling rather uncomfortable.

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