Additional Comments from the Australian Greens

Remarks from Senator Dorinda Cox

1.1Firstly, I would like to acknowledge all First Nations people that provided this inquiry with the important and compelling evidence about missing and murdered First Nations women and children in Australia. I want to thank them for humbly welcoming us into their lands and sharing their experiences with the committee.

1.2I thank the family members and survivors who shared their painful truths about their tragic experiences at our hearings. I am honoured to have shared your tears, hugs and hopes for a better future.

1.3I will always be inspired by your resilience. I have special admiration for the grassroots people and activists who continue to confront the violence against First Nations women and children. They knew – they have always known – that the violence has to stop.

1.4This is Australia’s first federal inquiry which seeks to address violence against First Nations women and children and to identify its systemic causes. With an ever-increasing prevalence of violence in our communities, fulfilling our mandate was a daunting task. It was also an important opportunity for the truth to be heard and acknowledged.

1.5This report honours the lives lost and those still missing (disappeared) through systemic failures that have led to losses of dignity, humanity and, in too many cases, losses of life. This report is about deliberate actions and the failure of systems that have racial and gendered violence at their centre.

1.6As a nation, we face this crisis. Regardless of which number of missing and murdered First Nations women and children is cited, the number is far too great. The continuing murders, disappearances and violence prove that this crisis has escalated to a national emergency that calls for timely and effective responses. These violent acts amount to nothing less than a deliberate, often covert campaign of genocide against First Nations women and children.

1.7I believe, especially after witnessing the resilience of First Nations families, survivors and communities, that change will happen. This begins with recognising the truth. Within the short time we have had to do our work, families and survivors have provided important truths. These truths force us to reconsider where the roots of violence lie, and in doing so, push us to reconsider the solutions.

1.8This inquiry was intended, through its terms of reference, to achieve two things:

(a)concrete and effective actions that can be taken to remove systemic causes of violence and to increase the safety of First Nations women and children; and

(b)ways to honour and commemorate the missing and murdered First Nations women and children in Australia.

1.9The current data and statistics don't reflect the magnitude of this issue. FirstNations women and children continue to vanish from the landscape, physically gone but also disappeared from the caseloads of many different government departments, and some oversight bodies.

1.10The system thinks our loved ones are forgotten, because there is no legacy or permanent reminder retained by the institutions. There are no memorials in parks or on streets for our missing and murdered women and children that families can visit or gather around. We don’t have a public narrative that educates our future generations on the role history has played.

1.11This was a Senate-led inquiry, so I must also recognise the reality of the relationship between Australia and its First Peoples. The Australian Parliament operates under a system of laws and institutions that continually perpetuate violations of First Peoples’ basic human and Indigenous rights. Because of this and many other challenges, some truths have remained untold and unknown.

1.12There has been, and will be, criticism of our work. That is vitally important. Ihope that the criticism will be constructive and never end. I take the critics and their criticism as indications of the great passion that exists about the issue of violence against First Nations women and children, but the hope this report carries is that knowing the truths revealed here can, and will, contribute to a better understanding of the lived experiences of First Nations people and the violations of their rights when they are targeted for violence.

1.13This violence is not what Australia is supposed to be about. It is not what it claims to stand for. Australia can be a great country – the one many Australians believe it is. Collectively, we must settle for nothing less. For non-Indigenous Australians, this means rethinking commonly held stereotypes, confronting racism in every context and tackling without fear the reinforcement of these.

1.14First Nations women and our children are at the heart of our communities and our link to the next generation, so protecting them is paramount. They must never be invisible or forgotten. Bringing light to the enormity of this issue must be the reckoning for our nation.

1.15For me, achieving change will require vision, courage and leadership from our governments at all levels. They must invest and take the actions that we urgently need.

1.16We can’t erase the past, but we can build a better future that recognises and protects our strong culture and identity. Our shared past is like the sleeping creator being. He is now awake. Our creation story is painful for us to tell, and for some even more painful to hear, but it is our truth.

1.17Not with violence – this is not our way – it is our resistance to oppression.

1.18Creating safety is all of our responsibility, so we must stand together with our allies to face our truths and build our future fire, one of nurturing spirit and strength.

1.19Our future generations of women and children, in our way, will always be reminded by our old people that they are standing on the shoulders of cultural giants. It is in this power that we must continue to meet this issue with love, care, and humility.

Key issues

Racist and discriminatory policing

1.20Racist and discriminatory policing was raised by many witnesses and was a key issue identified by families in particular.

1.21Respectful and professional communication from police with families whose loved ones are missing or murdered should be a non-negotiable expectation and reality for First Nations families who have lost a loved one. Instead, many families are treated with gross disrespect, often scorn, are kept in the dark on key issues and are further retraumatised by their experience with the criminal justice system.

1.22One further solution to this is to create a national minimum policing standard for their interactions with First Nations people and communities. This would be a standard we could hold police to in their interactions with First Nations people. It would be an important step towards making those interactions culturally safe.

1.23Of course, the guidelines themselves would not be sufficient, they would need to be accompanied by more empowered and senior First Nations police, First Nations community-controlled organisations being funded and supported to train police, and a careful co-design process for the standards themselves. Thiswould necessarily incorporate learnings from past cases involving disappeared and murdered First Nations women and children, such as the reforms recommended by the NSW State Coroner in the inquest into the deaths of Mona Lisa and Jacinta Rose Smith.

1.24Time after time in this inquiry we heard confronting evidence of First Nations women approaching police for support and being disrespected, ignored, humiliated and even, on occasion, being recast from survivor and victim to perpetrator. This is not a recent development and it presents an often impossible barrier to First Nations women obtaining justice and protecting their families.

1.25We also heard evidence from senior and experienced police (Gary Jubelin for example) that the evidence and actions taken in the first 24 hours of a missing person case are critical for the success of police investigations. When First Nations women are facing these barriers at the time they present to police, this too often means a substandard, sometimes tragically so, police response. Theevidence we heard is that when First Nations women go to police stations alone to report violence towards themselves or their families they often do not feel safe and police response negates their concerns in such a way that is hard to comprehend until you hear their firsthand accounts. This cannot continue.

1.26Some small part of this problem can be overcome by more police training and cultural awareness, but the extent of the disconnect, and the lack of trust from First Nations communities is so apparent that we cannot rely on this alone making First Nations women feel safe approaching police.

1.27This is why we asked the committee to adopt a further recommendation in the following terms:

1.28That the government urgently acts to provide sufficient funding, including through additional National Legal Assistance Partnership support, to deliver and expand First Nations led community services that are able to provide advocacy and support services to assist First Nations women to report incidents of violence and threats of violence to police in a way they will be both respected and heard.

1.29Despite this not being accepted for inclusion in the majority report, we remain of the view that this is a critical learning from the evidence and is an essential element in responding to the gross injustices we saw.

The Commissioner

1.30The majority report, at Recommendation 4, includes the phrase, ‘Detailed consideration should be given to the way in which the position is created within the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission’. We are convinced that the position should be that of a Commissioner to tackle the issue with leadership and urgency based on the unacceptable rates of violence against First Nations women and children.

1.31That the position on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission should be that of a Commissioner.

Children and Young People

1.32There is little mention of children and young people throughout the recommendations. We believe that priority should be given to First Nations led approaches, that are culturally based, to the safety and protection of children. Healing centres have a role to play here. In addition, more work must be done to create an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander violence prevention framework for men and boys, with an emphasis on early intervention with boys. Healing was a key theme in the evidence presented by witnesses.

Recommendation 3

1.33That the Australian government works with First Nations communities to develop an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander violence prevention framework for men and boys.

Use of the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs

1.34At Recommendation 3 in the majority report, it is suggested that the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (JSCATSIA) should measure progress for Recommendation 2. A parliamentary committee is not the appropriate body in our view. This process must not be institutionalised into another government report with no accountability for the serious crimes committed and the predictable and preventable harm to communities.

Recommendation 4

1.35That an alternative body to the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs be developed for measuring progress regarding the development of harmonised best police practices across federal, state, and territory police forces (Recommendation 2 in the majority report).

International oversight

1.36The majority report does not provide for international oversight over Australia’s progress on the issue of missing and murdered First Nations women and children. Without oversight from an independent observer, Australia’s efforts could fall victim to local politics. We suggested the use of the United Nations’ formal mechanisms for gender and Indigenous rights.

Recommendation 5

1.37That the Australian government works with the United Nations’ existing formal mechanisms for gender and Indigenous rights to provide international oversight over Australia’s progress on the issue of missing and murdered First Nations women and children.

Key performance indicators for police

1.38The majority report expresses the need for improvements in police training and methodology, but there are no targets or goals that can be pinned down. Werecommended the following:

Recommendation 6

1.39That the Australian government develops clear, best practice policies for the timely provision of information, including autopsy results and coroners’ reports, to the families of missing and murdered women and children.

Recommendation 7

1.40That the Australian government ensures that specialised resources for missing persons cases are used, and that cultural safety and trauma-informed protocols are incorporated into police procedures.

1.41All of this should be informed by the Australian and New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency’s anti-racism and cultural diversity principles. We are also asking for some targets around the elimination of racial profiling and the identification of victims as perpetrators.

Recommendation 8

1.42That the Australian government develops targets around the elimination of racial profiling and the identification of victims and perpetrators.

Recommendation 9

1.43That the Australian government provides support for First Nations community services, to provide advocacy to assist First Nations women to report violence and threats.

1.44Women must be able to report incidents to police in a way that will be respected and heard.

Integrated data

1.45This point is crucial. No funding or planning can be effective without context and a strong idea of the problem at hand. The majority report does not place targets on efforts to improve the national database. As with some other recommendations, there are no targets or goals that can be pinned down.

1.46We need a strong idea of the kinds of data-points that must be collected. Forexample, in some jurisdictions, there is no record of the ethnicity of missing and murdered people. We need to define the data-points that we expect from each jurisdiction and place targets on their effective collection and availability across the network.

Recommendation 10

1.47That the Australian government clearly defines the data-points that we expect from each jurisdiction and places targets on their effective collection and availability across the network.

The big picture and accountability mechanisms

1.48We need a First Nations-specific, stand-alone national plan of action, best practice policing processes, and measurement against Target 13 of the Closing the Gap agenda. We must also provide data and information systems that target police resources effectively, and we need procedures that are consistent with the involvement of, and advice from, relevant non-police agencies.

1.49The government should undertake a review and table a comprehensive report detailing the connection between missing and murdered First Nations women and children and the failure to implement the outstanding recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Bringing Them Home reports. The government must also publicly commit to fully implementing the recommendations of the JSCATSIA on the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People.

Recommendation 11

1.50That the Australian government develops a stand-alone national plan of action, including best practice policing processes and measurement against Target 13 of the Closing the Gap agenda.

Recommendation 12

1.51That the Australian government undertakes a reviews and tables a comprehensive report detailing the connection between missing and murdered First Nations women and children and the failure to implement the outstanding recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Bringing Them Home report.

Recommendation 13

1.52That the Australian government publicly commits to fully implementing the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs on the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People.