An Open letter to the QLD Premier

The Covid crisis has put the spotlight on a few political issues, one of which is the precarious health situation of Indigenous people in Australia. This is in large part due to their systemic institutional discrimination, the worst expression of which is the  huge over-representation of the Indigenous prison population and the high number of their deaths in custody. 
And in spite of a Royal Commission inquiring into this situation 348 months ago and handing down more than 300 recommendations. Only a few of them have been implemented and since the publication of the report another 434 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have died in custody.  What a shame!

Most Australians have not really been concerned about this too much. However, race relations can change very quickly and the ongoing  Black Lives Matter movement shows that tolerance for racial discrimination, on the one hand, and lack of  scrutiny of the actions of the police, on the other, will no longer meet with  apathy or be allowed  to continue. Any government that wants to survive or be re-elected will have to do something to prevent at least the worst excesses of systemic racial discrimination.

So we request that you to take just a few small steps to implement some recommendations of the Royal Commission before the coming election, such as to abolish the ‘crime’ of public drunkenness which would do a lot to cut the number of indigenous prisoners.

I also request that you establish a Custody Notification Service which would enable Indigenous organisations to check on the welfare of people in custody. This would be very simple and would address some of the critical concerns of the Indigenous people.  And such steps would be cost effective since the Notification Service would not require huge sums (but needs on-going adequate funding).

I hope that you will act in the best interest of all Queenslanders,

Yours, sincerely,

Ecumenical Social Justice Group

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