Cross-posted from Andrew’s blog.
Unfortunately, Christmas has done nothing to improve the shambles surrounding the way our justice system has dealt with the death in custody in Palm Island. This situation is about justice being seen to be done and people feeling they are getting a fair go, but the application of one short-term fix piled on top of another has now created such a mess that I doubt it will appear satisfactory no matter what the outcome.
The last few days have seen a few more questions and problems added to the list. The decision by retired judge, Pat Shanahan, to resign from the review of the Director of Public Prosecution’s decision has added to the mess (or rather, the decision to appoint him rather than go for someone from interstate, added to the mess). Given how highly political this case has become, it would be unsatisfactory (and highly unwise) to go with a Queenslander, no matter how much the Premier wants to play the parochial card with by asking “what’s wrong with Queenslanders?�.
I also think there is still a big question to be answered about the circumstances surrounding the initiation of the review. Mr Beattie and the Attorney-General Mr Shine both said they did not ask the DPP to provide the file which supposedly enabled them to initiate a review, yet the DPP specifically said she was requested to hand over the file. Indeed, Mr Beattie went so far as to say the file “was not something that the Government asked for, nor would we have expected it.�
This may seem like a small thing, but it appears either the DPP or the Premier (and Attorney-General) are not telling the truth about the precise thing which purportedly enabled a review to take place – not exactly a situation that adds to one’s confidence about the whole issue.
The state government’s refusal to see any underlying problems or to put long-term interests ahead of short-term issue management has created a situation where there are now too many inconsistencies and unanswered questions, with each new controversy overlaying and modifying the previous one.
I thought I should do up a list so I don’t lose track of all the different issues that have arisen from this whole tragedy, which we should not forget did not just involve the death of Mulrunji in custody. His mother died not too long afterwards, with many people saying she never recovered, and of course his only son also died towards the end of this year. Not to forget the impact on his immediate family and the wider community.
Following are some of the other issues I think need to be addressed. No doubt there are more I’ve forgotten or am not aware of:
• will the review of the DPP’s decision be only into her decision not to lay charges, or will it examine the adequacy of the way she has handled the whole situation?
• in particular, will the review examine whether the DPP was justified in making her own conclusive finding that the death must have been a “tragic accident� caused by a “complicated fall�?
• will the review also assess whether it was appropriate for the DPP to come to this definitive finding on the basis of new and undisclosed evidence which no one else had a chance to test?
• why, more than two years after the death in custody has there still been no disciplinary action taken in regards to serious procedural failings in the initial police investigation, or on matters such as failing to tell Mulrunji’s family he was dead when they came to check on him at the jail?
• Comparing the lack of action on the part of any police officers involved in the death in custody or the subsequent investigations compare to the extreme and immediate action of police in response to those on Palm Island protesting the finding of the initial flawed and rushed police investigation. This involved large number of armed riot police raiding people’s homes, busting down doors and drawing guns in front of children;
• The State government’s decision to appeal the sentence of three people from Palm Island who pleaded guilty to one charge of rioting, resulting directly in them having to serve time in jail, including a mother of four whose children have had to be placed in care while she is in custody;
• The bail conditions placed on some other people accused by police from the riot, which included some being barred from being on Palm Island – a form of exile from home and family with overtones of the historical practice of removing Indigenous people deemed to be ‘troublemakers’ from their community and family. At least one person I know who was subjected to this and who had their door broken down and armed police in his house ended up having no charges laid.
• The Court finding that one of the riot accused, Lex Wotton, could not get a fair trial in Townsville on the charges because of prejudicial media coverage and research showing that most locals would be unable to put aside predetermined views on the matter.
andrew,
good luck getting satisfactory answers to any questions on your list.
Perhaps they could also ask why the CMC, the state’s former corruption watchdog is mangy,toothless,with no bark and no bite and no ideas. It should be a body the Police Union respects and fears but seems to be sleeping peeacfully while chaos reigns.
Part of the problem started when the CMC decided to outsource most of its police review functions to… the police. It should have been a no-brainer. But the decision was justified in terms of the CMC lawyers being paid more than the cops and thus it being a less cost-effective use of their time. Unless you believed that there was, erm, some value other than penny pinching salaries to the exercise.
I thought the whole rationale for the formation of the CMC was because the concept of Police investigating the police in Queensland was a proven failure. Why when there is a death in custody is it not the CMC who conduct the investigation into the incident? When the CMC were first formed I seem to recall it as standard practice.
There are legislative requirements placed on the CMC which it now deals with by outsourcing them to the police. The figure I’ve heard (from a disillusioned CMC employee, so I don’t guarantee it) is that around 80% of complaints made against the cops to the CMC are bounced straight back to the cops.
I’ve also run across CMC lawyers who see it as beneath their dignity to do routine investigations of complaints against cops, and justify it that way.
Whichever way it’s justified, it sucks.
When they did eventually buy into the Palm Island Affair they could see nothing wrong so we seem to have gone full circle where a CMC investigation equals a police investigation and that is very sad for the administration of justice in Queensland. A far higher standard of inquiry is expected from the CMC.
And the irony is that Beattie as Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Criminal Justice argued in those terms under the Goss government – but I guess that was before he got to be a Minister
Goss himself was very dismissive of the need for the CMC to investigate Indigenous deaths or complaints – I heard him abuse people who suggested that it was a basic requirement of justice in this state at an open forum in 1995 at UQ. This was only one of the reasons under the charming Goss government that I let my ALP membership lapse.
I really hope one positive consequence of Mulrinji’s sad death is that we can turn up the heat again on the absolutely disgraceful performance on both police accountability and Indigenous issues by Labor in this state.
It’s almost tempting to say that we should have put the Opposition in last election, just to give this pathetic mob a well deserved kick in the bum, but hey, it’s Queensland, and it’s going to be a long long and very long time before any of us with memories of the Joh era get pissed off with Labor enough to register a protest vote. But since Messrs Goss and Beattie know what it was like full well, and both were associated in their much younger days with the Caxton Legal Service and civil liberties law, you’d really hope they wouldn’t tempt us too much.
It’s enough to make you cry, or rather to stand up again and keep fighting.
At least one Queensland pollie (if it’s not currently too derogatory to call a Senator for Queensland that!) is taking a stand…
I should add the adequacy of the CMC’s role to the list. Another I forgot is the announcement a few days before Christmas by the Premier and the Police Commissioner that now “all Indigenous deaths in custody will be treated as suspicious” and thus “the Police Ethical Standards Command and the Crime and Misconduct Commission will be called in to coordinate any such investigation.”
This itself raised a bunch of questions, such as:
- why is it only for indigenous deaths in custody;
- why hasn’t this been automatic already, especially if it was a “a key concern in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report” as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner states;
- it is better than the local police officer’s mate investigating a death, (although that shouldn’t happen now anyway), but how adequate and independent are such investigations likely to be into similar incidents.