The Guardian 9 November, 2005
Review report sparks action
The only Indigenous-led assessment of any Australian government's response to the 339
recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody has been handed
to the Victorian Government.
Hailed as frank and fearless, the report was presented to State Attorney-General Rob Hulls, whose
response was to the point: "This is a candid account of our shortcomings", he said.
"It is, quite simply, a government-commissioned kick up the arse — there's no better expression for
it — and now it is time to gather our thoughts, assess our progress and draw up a map for the
terrain in front of us."
Review Chairman Mark Rose, Co-Chairwoman Joy Murphy and a support team compiled their two-
part review over 18 months.
"The 1991 report concluded that the high rate of Indigenous deaths in custody was a direct
consequence of the disproportionate incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people", Dr Rose said.
"The recommendations addressed national race relations and suggested ways to break the cycle of
disadvantage that continues to land Indigenous people in prison.
"But almost 15 years later, our people are still falling through the net."
The review included more than 165 meetings with the Koori community, hundreds of self-
assessment reports from key government departments and interviews with Koori prisoners and
staff at 11 Victorian prisons.
The resulting review looks at how to adjust and fine-tune the original recommendations for the
contemporary needs of Indigenous Victorians.
"It's about unfinished business, the lives of those people who have died since the Royal
Commission represent an ongoing struggle. Their unfinished business must be our unfinished
business", said Dr Rose who, along with other speakers, took time to thank and acknowledge the
involvement of the family members of those seven Aboriginal people who have since died in
custody in Victoria.
Victoria Aboriginal Affair Minister Gavin Jennings said: "One death is one death too many, let's be
very clear about that".
"The history of this nation over the last 200 years, the sins of dispossession, the sins of
disadvantage, have profoundly let us all down. The issue of racism and reconciliation has not been
resolved and we do not deny this."
Mr Hulls said that more than 200 years of dispossession could not be undone in only six
years.
"Nevertheless, we had rightly hoped for more and I am, quite simply, ashamed … that Koori
communities are still at the bottom of all social indicators and that the same underlying issues of
racism and disadvantage, persist", he said.
"The elected representatives of this nation must take responsibility for the state-sponsored march
of dispossession that began with colonisation and that continues to pervade the experience of
Aboriginal people".
(By Jirra Lulla Harvey for Koori Mail. 2/11/05)