2 days ago
Anthony Albanese resists calls for federal intervention into two aboriginal deaths in Northern Territory police custody
The Prime Minister has pushed back against calls for federal intervention following two Aboriginal deaths in custody in the Northern Territory.
NT Police are investigating the death of a 68-year-old man who was taken into protective custody by Australian Federal Police officers on May 30.
Police said the man was taken into custody after he was too intoxicated to board a flight from Darwin Airport.
He was taken to the Palmerston Watchhouse where he was assessed and it was deemed he should be taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital.
The man was unconscious on his arrival at the hospital but was resuscitated and admitted to the intensive care unit.
Police said the man died on Saturday, more than a week after he was first taken into custody.
His death follows the death of 24-year-old Kumanjayi White, who died after he was arrested by plain-clothed police officers at the Coles Supermarket in Alice Springs on May 26.
Labor politicians including Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and Special Envoy for Remote Communities Marion Scrymgour have been among those calling for an independent investigation into Kumanjayi White's death.
Ms Scrymgour called for the AFP to take over the investigation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the National Press Club he was unconvinced federal intervention was the best way forward.
'Now, in general, the idea of federal intervention which is frankly, an easy thing that people come up with, why aren't you sending the AFP, why aren't you doing that, without then saying where it leads,' he said.
'I'd need to be convinced that people in Canberra know better than people in the Northern Territory about how to deal with these issues, is my starting point, I think it comes up all the time with a range of issues.'
'But we do need to engage directly and constructively with First Nations people. People voted clearly in the referendum on the model that was put forward by First Nations people themselves in the Uluru Constitutional Convention in 2017, but we need to find different ways of engaging respectfully, of listening in a different form as well.'
Vigils and protest rallies have been held around the country since Kumanjayi White's death.
The man who died in Darwin at the weekend has been identified as a senior leader from the remote Indigenous community of Wadeye.
Northern Territory deputy opposition leader Dheran Young said the man was a close friend who had walked him into Parliament on his first day.
'I know the community are in deep, deep shock with what has occurred but what I do know is there are organisations out there on the ground supporting the family,' he said.
Justice Not Jails spokesman Stephen Enciso told Sky News both deaths in custody should be investigated independently of police.
He said government had still failed to implement most of the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
"The Royal Commission was very clear that arrest should be a measure of last resort for intoxication and there should be sobering up facilities and all sorts of non-custodial alternatives when somebody is intoxicated so there are big questions to be asked,' he said in reference to the man's death in Darwin at the weekend.
'Why was he taken to the Palmerston Watchhouse and not straight to the hospital, this is another case where police should not be involved in the investigation."
The NT Government has said it is appropriate for the NT police and the coroner to investigate the deaths.
It says it will continue its justice reforms 'that put the rights of victims ahead of offenders'.
