Lawyer and founder of the Make Police Investigate Campaign, Karen Iles has called for extensive reform to justice and policing systems across Australia in evidence provided to the Federal Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children.
Iles says the epidemic of the murder and abduction of First Nations women and children was not receiving the attention the crisis warranted.
“The epidemic of murder and abduction of First Nations Women and Children has reached crisis levels,” said Iles on Wednesday. “We know from media investigations that at least 315 First Nations women have either gone missing, been murdered or killed in suspicious circumstances since 2000.”
“First Nations women are being murdered up to 12 times the national average, and in some regions, their deaths make up some of the highest homicide rates in the world.”
Despite these appalling statistics, Iles says the issue is often “written off by government and police as a problem ‘within community’ for First Nations people to solve” and that it’s not seen as urgent enough “to warrant proper police investigation, judicial redress or media reporting”.
“The disappearances, murders and sexual assaults of First Nations women and children are more often than not at the hands of non-Indigenous men,” she says.
“Yet, when First Nations women do seek redress from the police and courts, they find themselves obstructed by a system wrought with institutional and cultural sexism, misogyny and racism.”
Pointing to evidence from a Canadian Inquiry, Iles said “these state behaviours create a culture within which people can perpetrate violence against First Nations women and know that they are safe from consequences”.
“This is a fundamental reason that First Nations women and children experience all forms of violence at much higher rates than others in Australia.”
Key reforms needed to address the epidemic
In her evidence to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children, Iles outlined several key reforms necessary to address the epidemic.
Firstly, Iles says that in order to ensure all victims and their families have access to justice, we need national principles on how police investigations for serious crimes must be conducted.
“Unfettered discretion by police on what they do and don’t investigate mixed with systemic racism and sexism doesn’t allow all Australians access to justice,” the reform states.
Secondly, we must have a national duty of care that’s owed by police to First Nations victims and their families. This means ensuring police don’t act with negligence or recklessness in a manner that causes victims and families unnecessary trauma. It also means ensuring victims are provided with mental health support.
And where police are found to have acted negligently or fail in their duty of care, the reform calls for a National Redress Scheme to be put in place, similar to what exists already for victims of child sexual assault, that holds the state to account.
“We must have a national and nationwide duty of care owed by police to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims or, if they’re dead, their families,” said Iles.
“To address the lack of transparency, accountability, and justice in the manner police operate, we need a national state and territory police complaints integrity corruption commission based on the Northern Ireland model.”
“Currently, we have no data on the impact that the lack of access to justice has on victims or victims’ families. Research must be undertaken on the connection between poor police responses to abduction, sexual assault and murder and the suicide of the victim or the victim’s family members.”
Finally, Iles is calling for a national alternative to police for First Nations victims and their families for those who have been abducted and murdered or are victims of sexual assault.
Considering that trust in police is low or non-existent for First Nations people, there’s need for legislation to empower a civilian body at a nationwide level to receive reports of harm and to be able to coordinate a response. This will eliminate the need for victims-survivors and their families to be interacting with police as much as possible.
“The epidemic of murder and abduction faced by First Nations Women and Children requires a deep and comprehensive response. Government, police and the justice system have failed First Nations Women and Children for far too long,” said Iles.
“Now is the time for action.”