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Watson, Nicole --- "Policing of Indigenous People in Australia: Justice is Still Elusive" [2007] IndigLawB 12; (2007) 6(25) Indigenous Law Bulletin 10

Policing of Indigenous People in Australia: Justice is Still Elusive

by Nicole Watson

I write this on the third anniversary of the untimely death of Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey. This morning I attended a rally in Redfern, organised by members of his community who continue to demand, and continue to be denied, the simple justice that is the right of the Hickey family. For how is it that a 17-year-old boy can die while being pursued by police officers, and yet no one be held accountable? Similar questions have been asked by Indigenous people around Australia for decades; particularly by families who have lost loved ones in police custody.

That the law denies justice to Indigenous victims of police violence is no revelation. After all, that is why the first Aboriginal Legal Service was established in Redfern in 1970. Its inaugural President, Hal Wootten, described a notorious police curfew at the time:

The simple position was that any Aboriginal who was on the streets of Redfern at a quarter past ten was simply put into the ‘Paddy wagon’ and taken to the station and charged with drunkenness, and that was something that was just literally applied to every Aboriginal walking along the street, irrespective of any sign of drunkenness in his behaviour.[1]

The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody[2] (‘RCIADIC’) represented the first official attempt to address systemic racism in law enforcement. However, there was never sufficient political will to make implementation a reality. During the 1996 election the Coalition promised to convene a summit with State and Territory Ministers for the purpose of developing a coordinated approach to implementation of the RCIADIC recommendations. That promise was eventually realised in July 1997, however at the Summit, the former Indigenous Affairs Minister, John Herron, renounced any supervisory role for the Commonwealth in the reform of the state and territory criminal justice systems.[3] It is a sad indictment on our nation’s journalists that none bothered to raise this point when both the current Minister, Mal Brough, and the Prime Minister recently commented on the Queensland DPP’s decision not to prosecute Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley in relation to the death of Mulrunji.

In my first year of law school it was drummed into me that emotion plays no part in the law; this inanimate thing that is above politics, class and race. But those who held this belief never acknowledged the privilege that insulated them from the blunt instruments of the law. After all, it is never the children of lawyers who suffer lonely deaths in police cells. Fifteen years on, I believe that contrary to what my lecturers taught me, the law is in need of humanity. For until it places a higher value on black life than that currently afforded to the careers of police officers who abuse their positions in order to terrorise, the law will never deserve our trust.

Nicole Watson is a member of the Birri Gubba People of Central Queensland. Nicole has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland and a Master of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology. Nicole was an Editor of the Indigenous Law Bulletin from 2002-2003, and Nicole is currently employed as a Research Fellow by the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS.

In June-July of 2007, the Indigenous Law Bulletin will be publishing a Special Focus Edition looking specifically at issues around policing and Indigenous Australians. Ideas and abstracts are welcome for this edition. Please contact the editors (details p4) should you be interested in contributing.

Articles reproduced following this reflection were:

Diana Eades, ‘Cross Examination of Aboriginal Children: The Pinkenba Case’, (1995) 3(75) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 10 (This article can be accessed via <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AboriginalLB/1995/46.html> )

Chris Cunneen. ‘The Police Killing of David Gundy’ (1991) 2(50) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 13 (This article can be accessed via <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AboriginalLB/1991/33.html> )


[1] Garth Nettheim, Aborigines, Human Rights and the Law (1974) 60.

[2] Commonwealth, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody, National Report (1991) <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/index.html> at 7 March 2007.

[3] Ibid 150.


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