Labor MP Marion Scrymgour calls for leadership over black deaths in custody

Australia Broadcast Center

4 days ago

Northern Territory MP Marion Scrymgour has slammed the federal government and previous governments for "taking their eye off the ball" regarding Aboriginal 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.
Ms Scrymgour told ABC News Breakfast on Monday that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should consider addressing the issue, after Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, 24, died after being restrained by NT Police officers on the floor of the Alice Springs Coles supermarket on May 27.
"Aboriginal people are being completely ostracised and victimised, and people are dying," she told News Breakfast host Bridget Brennan.
"The federal government I think needs to show the leadership."
Mr White's grandfather, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, also spoke on News Breakfast, outlining what he would like to see from police and the government after his grandson's death.
Ms Scrymgour called for a review and audit of the recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, some of which are still outstanding decades later.
Since the royal commission there have been about 597 First Nations deaths in custody, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.
"The federal government needs to have a look at all of those recommendations and certainly, as the federal member, I'll be talking to Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, the new Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and also [Home Affairs Minister] Tony Burke to have a look at where are we at with this," Ms Scrymgour said.
Ms Scrymgour pointed to the 2018 Review of the implementation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which found the 339 recommendations from the 1991 royal commission had not been completely implemented.
A separate 2021 review by the Australian National University assessed that 78 per cent of recommendations had been fully or mostly implemented.
"For the federal government, there needs to be an immediate review or have a look at where all of those recommendations are and to proceed accordingly," Ms Scrymgour said.
"Our people are dying prematurely and that needs to be looked at."
Mr White's family, along with several MPs, advocacy groups and the Central Land Council, have continued to call for NT Police to hand the criminal investigation over to a separate body.
Thousands of protesters across the country supported those calls at the weekend.
Mr White's family is also calling for the police officers involved in apprehending Mr White to be stood down while the investigation happens, and for all CCTV and body camera footage to be released to the family.
NT Police has said two officers, who were not wearing uniforms, detained Mr White after an alleged altercation with a security guard who had accused him of shoplifting.
NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst has denied the family's request to hand the investigation over to an independent body.
He said he would lead the investigation and provide oversight along with NT Police's Professional Standards Command, pledging it would be "objective, professional and transparent".
"Detectives have collected a considerable amount of evidence and the public can be assured that a full and thorough investigative report will be prepared for the coroner," he said.
Warlpiri elder and Mr White's grandfather, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, told ABC News Breakfast on Monday he wanted to hear a meaningful apology from the NT Police.
"You want to say sorry? You take the belt off, take your guns off," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"We are devastated, we cannot keep living like this.
"I would say this [to the police]: 'Get off our back … get off our back."
Ms Scrymgour, who has called for the investigation into Mr White's death to be handled by the Australian Federal Police, said an independent investigation would help Aboriginal people feel confident with the process "without fear or favour".