Independent MLA Thomas Emerson has called on the ACT Government to start living up to its progressive credentials by taking meaningful action in response to the release of an independent review into the over-representation of First Nations people in the ACT’s criminal justice system. He said the long-awaited final report demands government support for his Closing the Gap Private Member’s Bill which was introduced in the Assembly last month.

The final report from the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research makes 99 recommendations aimed at reducing the over-representation of First Nations people in the ACT’s criminal justice system, and warns government agencies against continuing with ‘business as usual’.

Mr Emerson said the damning findings were consistent with what he had heard repeatedly from local First Nations leaders, and represented a moment of reckoning for the ACT Government. 

“This report lays bare what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans already know to be true: our systems are failing them from start to finish. Systemic failure requires systemic reform, which is what this review calls for,” Mr Emerson said.

“We’ve been talking about Closing the Gap for 20 years. Yet First Nations children in the ACT are 12.5 times more likely to be in out-of-home care, First Nations young people are 14.3 times more likely to be in youth detention, and First Nations adults are 22.2 times more likely to be incarcerated.

“A person’s life trajectory should improve when they come into contact with government systems, not worsen. Many Canberrans will be outraged to learn how poorly our criminal justice system, and our service system more broadly, treats members of our First Nations community.”

Mr Emerson successfully brought a motion to the ACT Legislative Assembly in May calling for a Board of Inquiry into the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, after years of unanswered community calls for a well-resourced independent investigation.

“This report details why the ACT has the largest First Nations incarceration gap in the country. But the question still remains: when First Nations people end up in Canberra’s prison, why are they dying there? The upcoming Board of Inquiry will unearth what exactly is happening to First Nations detainees in the Alexander Machonochie Centre, as well as effectively actioning Recommendation 10.2 of this report calling for a review into systemic racism at the AMC. The Government now needs to get started on this Board of Inquiry as an urgent priority.”

Mr Emerson said the report indicated systemic reform to improve outcomes for First Nations people could only be realised by embedding greater accountability across all government institutions, and called for the Government to support his Closing the Gap Bill, set to be debated in the Assembly later this year. 

“The review speaks directly to the ACT Government’s failure to uphold its Closing the Gap commitments. I introduced a Private Member’s Bill just last month that would radically increase government accountability in delivering on those commitments,” Mr Emerson said.

“The bill makes it, by definition, a core part of the job of government officials to uphold the Closing the Gap principles, including by building their cultural capability, addressing institutional racism in their workplace, and promoting cultural safety. Its passage would give effect to recommendations 2.3(b) and 2.3(c) in this report. 

“This report reflects the systemic failures, institutional racism and injustice inherent in our government’s service systems, providing clear evidence of the urgent need for this piece of legislation to be passed by the Assembly. 

“The Jumbunna Review has to mark a turning point for the ACT. We need to do so much better than this.”