A 35 year old Aboriginal male died soon after being detained in custody. There are few details at this time. He was arrested on Wednesday and was found dead in his cell soon after. The Western Australian Government has been urged since the death of a 22-year-old woman in South Hedland police watch house in early August last year for the establishment of a custody notification service similar to the one in NSW and the ACT.

The idea of a custody notification service was a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-92). Only NSW and the ACT have implemented such a service, and which is protected by legislation, the Powers and Responsibilities Act 2005. The service was implemented in NSW in 1998 and has led to zero deaths in police watch house custody of First Nations people. The service costs less than $550,000 per annum, often less than the cost of a single coronial inquest. In NSW and the ACT the service on average makes contact with 15,000 detainees per annum. It is hosted by the Aboriginal Legal Service who roster custody notification service trained lawyers – trained in identifying suicidal ideation and in de-escalating high levels of anxiety and psychological stresses. The police must contact the service as soon as someone is detained, before taking any testimony or evidence. The trained advocate will advise the police of the detainee’s health, welfare and legal requirements.

In recent years, the NSW Government refused to continue funding the service and instead the federal government for a couple of years came to the rescue on this occasion. However recently Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Nigel Scullion has secured the service with $1.8 million of funding to June 2019. However the service should be rolled out nationally, particularly in Western Australia and the Northern Territory where the watch house deaths tragically continue. The service saves lives and also relieves the burden on police officers where they are expected to make inexpert judgments.

Earlier this year, the Western Australian Government gathered a ministerial working party to craft a custody notification service and to propose alternatives to the abominable jailing of fine defaulters (the poor) and low-level offending. But it has been a glacial like wait. It is disgusting that the State Government has failed to hurry up the establishment of the custody notification service. There are no excuses because one already exists in NSW. How hard is it to copy and paste?

The Government has been warned again and again by reform advocates and the odd parliamentarian that their slow crawl to ways forward would more than likely result in the loss of human life. With the recent death in Broome, the Western Australian Government has once again blood on its hands.