Opinion & Commentary
Let’s get serious about tackling indigenous violence
These figures will come as no surprise to people like Northern Territory MP Bess Price, who has campaigned for years against the horrendous levels of domestic violence experienced by Indigenous women.
Price has been criticised by the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service for saying jail helps keep Aboriginal people safe: ‘While they are being imprisoned, they don’t get to drink, they don’t get into trouble, they are fed three times a day.’
Price should not be derided for speaking the truth. She is merely stating a sad state of affairs – that for many remote Indigenous people, life is so bad that jail is often a better option.
Forgotten amid concerns with the rising Indigenous incarceration rate are the real victims – the people assaulted or even killed by their partner or another family member.
Many people believe Aboriginal people are unfairly targeted by police and arrested for relatively minor ‘social nuisance’ offences, but this ignores the fact that a large proportion (50 per cent) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are in jail for serious crimes such as homicide, assault and sex offences.
Now that the Australian Institute of Criminology data confirms the shocking homicide rate among Indigenous Territorians, it is time to do something about it. The question, though, is what?
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, blames alcohol for the high homicide rate among Indigenous Territorians, and last week launched minimum standards for Alcohol Management Plans.
Alcohol is a significant factor in Indigenous offending. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates that 87 per cent of all Indigenous intimate partner homicides are alcohol related.
However, merely focusing on alcohol as the cause of Indigenous violence is wrong. For long-term changes, governments must tackle the reasons why people are drinking rather than simply control alcohol consumption.
In a recent report, the Australian National Council on Drugs argued it was time for a new approach, with Executive Director Gino Vumbaca saying, ‘The same old tired and ineffective approach year after year must change.’ Their solution is to send offenders to treatment programs rather than prisons. But community-based programs and rehabilitation are not new. There are numerous diversionary programs across Australia as well as an Alcohol Court in the Northern Territory.
An evaluation of diversion programs in 2008 by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that Indigenous offenders were less likely to complete the programs than non-Indigenous offenders; they were also more likely to reoffend on completion of programs than non-Indigenous offenders.
Unless governments address the reasons why Indigenous people are drinking and taking drugs, such programs are doomed to failure.
Alcohol abuse has strong correlations with unemployment. Lack of employment, coupled with relatively high welfare payments, contributes to alcohol abuse, which in turn inhibits or prevents heavy drinkers from working.
A Senate inquiry reported that unemployment is a greater risk factor for offending than Indigenous status, with unemployed Indigenous people 20 times more likely to be imprisoned than employed Indigenous people. A 2012 study in Queensland found that the most chronic and costly offenders were from remote and very remote locations with appalling education outcomes and few employment options. In the remote community of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, one out of every six residents (93 people from a total population of 587) is in prison.
People need love, a sense of purpose, and something to look forward to. Unfortunately for many remote Aboriginal people, relationships are frequently fraught with violence, they don’t have jobs, and years of broken promises and inept policies have taught them not to hope for much or dream of a better future.
Instead of introducing more bandaid programs, governments need to get the basics right – this means improving education standards, so that all Territorians, regardless of where they come from, have the skills needed for employment.
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
