Page 668 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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Because existing statistics are so scarce, careful examination is needed before any generalisations can be made. I believe, Madam Speaker, that we need a much more careful scrutiny than just picking figures out of one or two tables that might exist. The royal commission's study of police custody in August 1988 concluded that nationally Aboriginal people were in custody at 27 times the rate of non-Aboriginal people, but that in the ACT Aboriginal people were in custody at 11 times the rate of non-Aboriginals. In other words, the available statistics indicate that in the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been incarcerated at a rate only about one-third as high as the national average. I understand that the figures that Mr Humphries used, which indicated that there were no Aboriginal prisoners in the ACT in the last two years, were probably derived from the national prison census. This is a census of all prisoners in Australia that is conducted on 30 June each year.
Madam Speaker, I think it should be noted, and I think we should all accept, that a census taken on one day in a year really cannot show the rates of people going through prisons. Particularly with a population as small as we have in the ACT, the figures from that census, on one day, are close to being statistically meaningless. However, if Mr Humphries had used the census figures since 1982 rather than the years he selected, he would have found that this data suggests an average rate of imprisonment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders from the ACT which is still more than four times that of the general population.
Mr Cornwell: But that would include Wreck Bay, would it not, Chief Minister, from 1982?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, Mr Cornwell asks whether that would include Wreck Bay. The figures I have are from the ACT.
Mr Cornwell: Pardon me, Chief Minister. Wreck Bay, if you are using those figures - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: Through me, Mr Cornwell.
Mr Cornwell: Certainly, through you, Madam Speaker.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I repeat that the information I have is that it does relate to the ACT and it compares with a national rate of Aboriginal imprisonment as recorded by that census which is at least 14 times that of the general population.
On another matter, Madam Speaker, the matter of funding, Mr Humphries wondered whether "our share" of the $150m from the Commonwealth would be spent appropriately. I would like, firstly, to make the point that it is not ours to decide upon. This money is Commonwealth money. It will go directly to Aboriginal communities. It will be channelled through ATSIC and Aboriginal people themselves will be deciding upon the appropriate use of that money. It will, of course, target law and justice and alcohol and drug issues, and it will be put to use over the next five years.
From the information that I have just provided, Madam Speaker, I think that there are two conclusions that can be drawn. The first is that, while there are by no means comprehensive figures or data, this does indicate a level of
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