Winnunga Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs (second from right), with mothers of detainees who have died in custody. From left, Tanya Hall, mother of Howard Hall, Narelle King, mother of Steven Freeman, who both died in the Alexander Machonochie Centre, and Charlene Murphy, whose son, TJ Dennis, died in the Silverwater Correctional Complex in NSW after being transferred from Canberra. Photo: Thomas Emerson.
CONTENT WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of a person who has died.
The ACT Government will establish a powerful Board of Inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody at the Alexander Machonochie Centre after three deaths in six months, including two in one week in February this year.
The government is already waiting on the Jumbunna review of the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the ACT criminal justice system, and coronial inquests into individual deaths in custody are currently under way, but it has come under intense pressure from community leaders such as Winnunga Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs and Joe Hedger to probe systemic issues at the AMC.
On Wednesday (7 May), the Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a motion from independent Thomas Emerson calling for the inquiry, which would have powers similar to a Royal Commission.
An amendment from Corrections Minister Marisa Paterson calls on the government to expedite the inquests so their findings can be taken into account, and urgently respond to the findings of the Jumbunna review when it is tabled.
The government will report back to the Assembly on the last sitting day of September 2025 with a starting date for the inquiry and when it will issue a report.
The motion calls for a wide-ranging inquiry looking at any systemic issues, actions of prison staff, use of force, handling of incidents, adequacy and cultural safety of health care and mental health support, rehabilitation, education and cultural programs, policy compliance, oversight structures and the ability of organisations to advocate for Aboriginal detainees.
Assembly members rose to support the motion in an emotional sitting watched by the mothers of three detainees who have died in the AMC, community members and other supporters.
Mr Emerson said local First Nations advocates had been calling for the government to take this issue seriously for decades.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our community are asking those of us in this chamber, why am I 22.7 times more likely to be incarcerated than you? Worse, they’re asking why their people continue to die in custody.
“These questions have gone unanswered for far too long … this motion seeks a serious assessment of and response to the circumstances, culture and processes of the AMC that have resulted in the disproportionate and tragic deaths of Aboriginal inmates.”
Mr Emerson said Aboriginal inmates were not being rehabilitated but traumatised and damaged, both physically and psychologically.
“This is a crisis that will not be resolved unless all of us in this place acknowledge the seriousness of this situation and make a firm commitment to change,” he said.
“Investing in a powerful, well-resourced, incisive board of inquiry is the necessary first step in making that commitment with a promise of systemic reform based on the findings and recommendations of that inquiry.”
Winnunga Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs, Joe Hedger and independent MLA Thomas Emerson. Photos: Thomas Emerson.
Mr Emerson read statements from Mr Hedger and Narelle King, the mother of Steven Freeman who died in the AMC in 2016.
“We cry, we rage, we bury our loved ones and then, too often, we walk into this place to find indifference. That indifference is killing us, too,” Mr Hedger said.
“We’re not asking for another review. We’re demanding a full independent board of inquiry, something with real power, something that looks beyond the surface, something that forces this government and this Assembly to confront the truth, no matter how uncomfortable.
“This is not about tearing down the system, it’s about building one that values First Nations’ lives.”
Ms King said the family still did not know what really happened to her son.
“Steven wasn’t just an inmate, he was my son, a brother, a father … this has completely broken my grandson, and he’s still trying to recover from it,” she said.
Both Corrections Minister Marisa Paterson and Attorney-General Tara Cheyne apologised to the families and community.
“I want to put strongly on the record to all the families, non-Indigenous and Indigenous, who have died in the custody of AMC since it opened, I am deeply sorry,” she said.
Dr Paterson said she would be judged on the actions the government took.
“I understand that when your loved one enters the ACT Government’s custody, that there’s an expectation of duty of care, that there will be rehabilitation and a healing process, and that your loved one, in most circumstances, will leave the facility,” she said.
“From my perspective as Minister, that is a minimum expectation, and I acknowledge that this has not been your experience, in fact, the direct opposite.”
Ms Tongs said an inquiry with powers to compel people to give evidence was long overdue, but it was a great outcome in the Assembly.
“It gives the mothers, our men and women and our community some hope that in time things will change,” she said.
Ms Tongs said the inquiry makeup should be local, using people who know the community and are familiar with Canberra, including members of the Aboriginal community.
“We need people on the ground, and especially their mothers, to have a voice in all of this,” she said.
It had been disappointing that the government had resisted establishing such an inquiry, which had been called for after Steven Freeman died in 2016.
“So look what’s happened since … we’ve had more deaths in custody,” she said.
Ms Tongs expected to be involved in the consultation with government about the inquiry makeup.
There are seven current inquiries relating to deaths in custody that are still pending with the ACT coroner’s office, and 15 detainees have died in custody at the AMC since it opened in 2008, five of whom have been Indigenous.
The Board of Inquiry will come 34 years after the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was issued on 15 April 1991, making 339 recommendations.
