Ignoring Pathways to justice report is an affront to the arduous work that went into it, Law Council says

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Law Council of Australia has joined several legal and justice organisations to issue a scathing attack on both the federal and Northern Territory governments’ management of Indigenous justice issues.

It has accused them of ignoring crucial reports on how to reduce the high numbers of Indigenous children and adults in jail, and “backflipping” on legal reforms.

It’s exactly a year sincethe federal government tabled the “Pathways to justice” report, which highlighted Indigenous overrepresentation in prisons and made recommendations to address the problem. Despite repeated public calls for action to implement its recommendations, none has been forthcoming.

“Ignoring this report is an affront to the arduous work that went into it,” the Law Council president, Arthur Moses, said.

“The fact is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are the most incarcerated people on earth, which is a national disgrace and international embarrassment.”

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Federal, state and territory governments must respond to the report and implement its recommendations as a matter of urgency, Moses said.

“Unfortunately, the government’s silence is deafening. It is compounded by other governments’ failures to act.

“Only last week the Northern Territory parliament passed an act which strips away key safeguards to protect children which were recommended by the Northern Territory royal commission into protection and detention of children,” Moses said.

The NT’s youth justice reforms have alarmed legal, social justice and Indigenous organisations, who have said the changes will send the NT back to the “dark days of old Don Dale”.

The NT families minister, Dale Wakefield, said the changes “clarify” circumstances in which force and restraints may be used on child detainees, define “separation” (isolation), enable screening and pat-down searches of youth detainees in a broader range of circumstances, and include a power to transfer detainees from one detention centre to another – namely, between Alice Springs and Darwin.

The NT’s peak body representing Aboriginal medical services, AMSANT, had called for a halt on the progress of the bill “until Aboriginal people and organisations have the chance to have a say”, its CEO, John Patterson, said, but it was passed late last week.

Wakefield told Guardian Australia the amendments were introduced to enable staff to “respond to incidents that can endanger lives”. “As such they are critical safety measures that must not be delayed.”

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert questioned the speed with which the amendments were rushed through the NT parliament.

“What is the NT Government trying to cover up in rushing through retrospective legislation that is contrary to the Royal Commission recommendations?

“This doesn’t just ring alarm bells, it’s a wailing siren. We need to get to the heart of the issue and that is that children should not be locked up in the first place,” she said.

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Siewert called on the federal government to help the NT fund the implementation of the royal commission recommendations.

The Change the Record coalition – an Aboriginal-led coalition of Aboriginal peak bodies and human rights, health and legal organisations including Amnesty, Acoss, Oxfam and Reconciliation Australia – also said the government was dragging its feet on implementing the ALRC report.

“It begs the question: if this was non-Indigenous people, would there be that same disregard for change that’s needed for our communities?” the coalition’s principal legal adviser, Nyoongar woman Roxy Moore, said.

“The real cost is to our communities every time they have an inquiry.

“Every time, our mob show up, and re-traumatise themselves in the hope that this time there’ll be justice. And then government just ignores it – at the cost of our communities and our peoples’ lives.”

The Law Council of Australia and the NT Law Society have joined calls for the government to honour its commitment to replace Don Dale with a new purpose-built facility as a matter of urgency.

“It’s troubling that the NT government appears to be dragging its feet on the establishment of facilities that are fit to look after children who are in custody,” Moses said.

They have also called for the NT to implement other royal commission recommendations, including raising the criminal age of responsibility from 10 years old to 12.

“In light of the delays, the Law Council needs to know, is the NT government intending to implement these recommendations, and if not what is the issue? Is it about capacity or willingness?

“We have a national tragedy and promises are not good enough. We need action.”