State steps to prevent deaths cold comfort for Dhu family

News that a custody notification system will be introduced in WA has done little to relieve the pain experienced by the grandmother of a young Aboriginal woman who died in custody of South Hedland police last year.

Carol Roe, grandmother of 22-year-old Ms Dhu, welcomed the decision but questioned why the State didn’t introduce the system following the 1991 findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

The Royal Commission recommended police should notify the Aboriginal Legal Service whenever an indigenous person was taken into custody with New South Wales the only state to take up the recommendation.

Upset, Ms Roe said her granddaughter had to die before the WA Government moved to reduce the risk of avoidable deaths in custody.

“I’m glad they are doing it but it won’t be a relief, my heart still cries for my granddaughter,” she said through tears.

“My granddaughter had to die before they’d do anything…they should have done it the same time as New South Wales did.

“Then we wouldn’t have (Ms Dhu) dead.”

Ms Dhu, whose first name is not used for cultural reason, died on August 4, 2014, three days after being jailed in the South Hedland watch house over unpaid fines of $1000.

Premier Colin Barnett, who met with Ms Dhu’s family in Hedland in April this year, outlined the Government’s response to the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system and deaths in custody earlier today.

In WA, Aboriginal adults represent only 3.9 per cent of the population but make up 40 per cent of the adult prison population, of which 40 per cent are imprisoned for low-level offences.

Mr Barnett said this figure represented an “extraordinarily complex and difficult problem” but no government should give up on it.

“It is not going to be fixed overnight but this working group will drive reform across all State departments,” he said.

A number of changes, including the custody notification system and measures to avoid incarnation for low-level offences, will be overseen by a ministerial working group including Police Minister Liza Harvey, Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis and Attorney General Michael Mischin.

The Government’s response came as the State Coroner’s office confirmed to the North West Telegraph that the report into Ms Dhu’s death has not been finalised and no date has been set for an inquest.

Ms Roe said she had personally asked for the inquest to be started before the anniversary of Ms Dhu’s death on August 4.