Prime minister 'missing in action' as Indigenous legal services call for national cabinet on deaths in custody

Australia Broadcast Center

12-06-2025

Indigenous legal services say the prime minister is "missing in action" and should convene a national cabinet meeting over rising Aboriginal incarceration rates and deaths in custody.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
The case of 24-year-old Kumanjayi White has sparked grief and anger in Indigenous communities across the country.
The Warlpiri man— who lived with a disability — died in police custody last month, after he was restrained by plain-clothed officers on the floor of Coles in Alice Springs.
On Saturday, another Indigenous man died at Royal Darwin Hospital while in the custody of federal police, about a week after he was detained.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) has urged federal Labor to bring all state and territory premiers and chief ministers together to work towards "justice" for First Nations people.
"We absolutely need the federal government to be making sure that mass incarceration — not only in the Northern Territory, but right around the country — and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is placed onto the agenda of national cabinet," said NATSILS chair and Wiradjuri lawyer Karly Warner.
"At the moment the prime minister is missing in action.
Ms Warner said the Northern Territory justice system had been "spiralling for years and the federal government has known about this".
"It is absolutely on the brink and requires urgent and immediate intervention from the federal government to ensure that it actually reforms and the transformative action occurs," she said.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) has also called for an "emergency intervention" into the territory's justice system, and for First Nations leaders and Commonwealth and NT authorities to address the territory's soaring incarceration rate.
Since the NT's Country Liberal Party (CLP) came to power in August and rolled out a suite of tough-on-crime measures, the prison population has risen by more than 500 people, with almost half of all prisoners on remand.
Since Kumanjayi White's death, the chairs of the NT's Central and Northern land councils have raised concerns about a deteriorating relationship between Aboriginal Territorians, the government and law enforcement.
Ms Warner said the Commonwealth could make sure funding agreements with the NT government were tied to "transformative justice system change".
"Access to justice is a huge problem nationally but also specifically in the Northern Territory, where we have the highest incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of any jurisdiction," she said.
"We've heard words from the prime minister, both four years ago but also in May in his victory speech, talking about how his government would be a government that would work towards reconciling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"When we have 36 per cent of the national prison population being made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we have to ask how is it that they can achieve [that].
"This is really requiring political buy-in. It is not time to step back."
Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said no government had "done well enough on any of these areas".
"We attempted last term to break with business as usual. We attempted to do that. I think we can't be accused of shying away from that," he said.
Mr Albanese said the Voice referendum result showed that "we need to find different ways of engaging respectfully and listening".
When asked if he supported calls for a federal intervention into the NT's justice system, the prime minister said he needed to be "convinced that people in Canberra know better than people in the Northern Territory about how to deal with these issues".
His office has been contacted for comment.
Ms Warner also echoed calls for an independent investigation into Mr White's death in custody, which have been led by his family and backed by NT federal MP Marion Scrymgour.
"An independent investigation is the absolute minimum that must occur here to ensure that the family get the answers that they deserve," she said.
"No Australian jurisdiction has got a completely independent system for investigating deaths in police custody.
"The federal government could set up a system and should set up a system to ensure there are independent investigations into deaths in custody."
NT Police Acting Commissioner Martin Dole has rejected requests for the investigation to be handed to an external body, saying there are strict procedures regarding "deaths involving police contact with the public".
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has also labelled those calls "ridiculous" and "unhelpful in the extreme".
"What it does is undermines confidence in the very people whose job it is to undertake these matters, and that is the Northern Territory Police Force," she told ABC Radio Alice Springs on Thursday.