The ABC has been remarkably quick to report on the recent death in custody of an Aboriginal man in Alice Springs. Further, they reported it over and over. No surprises there. One of their headlines reads ‘Demands for answers after ninth First Nations person dies in custody this year’. My response is to answer their question with another question: ‘ABC, why are you not interested in the 24 deaths of non-Aboriginal people in custody this year?’

Readers of The Spectator Australia already know the answer—‘our’ ABC, and other like-minded sections of the media, have for many years preferenced sensationalism over truth. So how sensationalised is the reporting on Aboriginal deaths in custody? Well let’s hear what Senator Lidia Thorpe has said in the past:

‘This is relentless and traumatising for our people …. At this point you have to say, the system is deeply racist’ (Canberra Times, March, 2021).

‘My people are sick of losing people. They tried to wipe us out 200 years ago, they failed, and we are still trying to survive in this country, and they are killing us in the prison system…. This is genocide.’ (ABC News, March 2021).

But that was four years ago. Perhaps Senator Thorpe has changed her views in recent times? Well, in relation to this most recent Aboriginal death in custody, the ABC quote her in another article: ‘We’ve just lost another innocent Aboriginal person to the system, the system that commits everyday ongoing violence against our people.’

Mmm, ‘the system’? The one that ‘commits everyday ongoing violence against our people’?

On what grounds do Senator Thorpe and others make claims like this? The left-leaning media have been happily promoting the narrative that Aboriginal people in custody are more likely to die than non-Aboriginal people in custody for many years. If this narrative were true, then perhaps they would be justified in their claims of genocide, ongoing killing, etc.

However, these claims are false. And don’t just take my word for it. Consider the words of the late David Biles. For three years, he was the head of the criminology research group of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, making him a very credible voice on the topic. Quoting Biles from the Sydney Morning Herald in 2016:

‘In fact, in the early days of the royal commission, when I and a small team of researchers were able to prove unequivocally that Aboriginal people were slightly less likely to die in prison or police custody than non-Aboriginal people, we were met with derision and disbelief. We were even accused of disloyalty to the royal commission.’

Since those early days of the royal commission, myself and a handful of others have sought to set the record straight. Yet the false narrative continues. But why? I offer here two reasons why I believe any Aboriginal death in custody is seen as evidence of fundamental injustice proceeding from racism. First, when an Aboriginal person dies in custody, it is almost certainly going to get a lot of attention with the predictable negative spin from the left-leaning media.

Second, while arguably, there is a high number of Aboriginal deaths in custody, this is simply because there is a high number of Aboriginal people in custody to begin with.

Indeed, this was a finding of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Quoting from its report: the high number of Aboriginal deaths in custody is ‘not because Aboriginal people in custody are more likely to die than others in custody but because the Aboriginal population is grossly over-represented in custody. Too many Aboriginal people are in custody, too often.’ This has been the case for far too long.

So why are the incarceration rates for Aboriginal Australians so much higher than for non-Aboriginal Australians? Firstly, it’s not due to systemic racism, as some still insist. In 2014, Don Weatherburn, who was formerly Executive Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, stated that the over-representation of Aboriginal Australians in prison is not because they are disproportionately targeted by police for committing minor offences or because they are treated more harshly by the courts than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

They are incarcerated at higher rates largely because they commit crimes at higher rates. So why are they committing crimes are higher rates? Again, Weatherburn, when speaking specifically about Indigenous crime, has stated: ‘the conditions that give rise to and sustain Indigenous involvement in crime, (are) in particular: drug and alcohol abuse, poor parenting, school failure and unemployment’.

Consider education and employment. Addressing these two will go a long way to enabling more Aboriginal people to live long and healthy lives with minimal trouble with the law; indeed, many are doing this already.

When adults are meaningfully employed and their children are gaining a quality education that equips them for the 21st century, they can thrive; they are less likely to commit crimes; they become valuable contributors to society.

Perhaps the best account of what happens when employment and education are absent, is shown in Warren Mundine’s response to the 2019 death in custody of a young Aboriginal man in Yuendumu: ‘Many see Walker’s death as being about Indigenous deaths in custody. I see it as about the epidemic of violence and dysfunction destroying so many Indigenous families and communities in remote Australia.’ Mundine wants to focus on the causes of incarceration and deaths in custody; so do I.

Contrast Mundine’s view with that of Teela Reid in The Sydney Morning Herald regarding Mr Walker: ‘This case begs the question: how much longer can the law justify the killing of Aboriginal people?’

In conclusion, in any national truth-telling agenda, surely honest talk about Aboriginal deaths in custody should be a high priority.

For The Uluru Statement from the Heart committee, I’m waiting for you to contact me. I have a few truths to tell you. And unlike an Acknowledgement of Country talk, it won’t cost you anything.