Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Update: Response by Governments to the Royal Commission" [1992] AboriginalLawB 15; (1992) 1(55) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 3

• Update-Response By Governments To The Royal Commission

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Update -

Response by Governments to the Royal Commission

The Federal Government has released a publication entitled: Aboriginal Deaths it Custody, Response by Governments to the Royal Commission (AGPS, Canberra 1992). Consisting of three volumes and an Overview, it takes the reader through each of the Commissions 33S recommendations accompanied by the 'position/comment' on, and 'action' taken by, the Commonwealth, states and territories or each recommendation.

The Overview provides a very informative and succinct coverage of the major problem areas identified by the Commission, including Law and Justice, Economic Development, Education, Health, Housing and Infrastructure, and Empowerment. It has special sections on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and young people, the latter being found by the Commission to be 'a particular group within the Aboriginal community which warrants special consideration.'

"A virtual charter for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy for many years to come ...[requiring] ... innovation in policy and in programs" (Overview, p.2) are the heady words chosen to describe the demands raised by the Commission's recommendations. However, to truly "put behind us a history of dispossession, dependency and efforts at forced assimilation and move decisively into a new era of Aboriginal and Torres Strait, Islander empowerment and self-determination" (Overview, p.3) pledges to develop and implement policies will amount to nothing if not made with a true commitment to change.

Claims on behalf of governments that a particular recommendation has been 'implemented' are insufficient in the face of little or no concrete evidence of changes in the circumstances of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. For eg., the NSW Government claims to have 'implemented' Recommendation 92 - that imprisonment should be utilised only as a sanction of last resort - but as is pointed out in Chris Cunneen's article in this issue (pp.13-14), the Aboriginal prison population in NSW continues to increase at an alarming rate.

Promises, even if supported by specific pieces of legislation, remain merely rhetoric if the overall thrust of government policy does not actively support and promote the outcomes desired by Aboriginal people.