Western Australia Greens Senator Dorinda Cox has criticised the state’s police, calling their refusal to appear at an inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children a slap in the face to the families of victims.
Cox, the state’s first female Indigenous senator, told a public hearing in Perth on Wednesday that their refusal is “a complete disregard for the trauma that they have experienced.”
“Our job today was to encourage government departments and in particular WA Police to come with answers about how they’d improved their systems,” Cox said. “So to not have police turn up is a complete slap in the face to families.”
“First Nations justice can never be achieved in this country if people are not accountable, if our law enforcement agencies across this country are not transparent in their transactions in our communities.”
Cox criticised the state’s Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) review, which investigated the police response to a case in 2013, where Yamatji woman Tamica Mullaley was arrested after she was violently assaulted by her ex-partner.
Instead of being treated for her life-threatening injuries as a victim of violence, Mullaley and her father, who had arrived to help his daughter, were both arrested by the state police.
During her detainment in police custody in hospital, Mullaley’s ex abducted their 10-month old son and murdered him.
The CCC review ruled there was no serious misconduct and failed to conduct a full investigation. In June last year, Western Australia’s attorney-general John Quigley apologised to Mullaley and her father and pardoned them on behalf of the state government.
“On behalf of the government of Western Australia, I am sorry for the way you were treated by the government and the WA police both before and after losing baby Charlie,” Quigley said.
“Ted and Tamica deserved compassion. Instead, the system we thought we could rely on to support victims of crime failed Tamica and Ted and they were dragged through the courts themselves.”
In April this year, Mullaley shared her story at the Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children, describing the occasion as healing.
On Wednesday in Perth, Cox praised Mullaley’s actions as inspirational.
“For her to come to the committee and to share her story with us was an act of bravery and she inspired so many other people to come forward and to talk to us,” Cox said.
The former WA police officer also used the opportunity to denounce the police’s decision to not attend the inquiry.
“It really screams to me that there’s a lack of respect that somehow we are still making victims responsible in this state for what has happened to them – and that is not OK,” she said, adding that Police Minister Paul Papalia has the power to urge police officers to attend.
“That is the responsibility of the system and the systems we all govern and that we, from a parliamentary point of view, legislate.”
“I’m urging people to work with us in partnership so that we can ensure that we look at this issue so we can prevent deaths of First Nations women and children in this country.”
A spokesperson for the state government said that WA police have made submissions to assist the Senate inquiry, adding that Papalia had not compelled members of the force to attend the inquiry since that would not be “appropriate with the existing separation of powers.”
After her testimonial in April this year, Mullaley told Guardian Australia that her baby son would “still be here if [the police] did their job right.”
“If my family were white, there would have been more care, more help,” she said.