Speaker 1: Podcast Unite Our Voices.
Speaker 2: This is Curtain, a podcast where we expose the disappearances
Speaker 2: of Aboriginal people across this country. Shining a light on
Speaker 2: the darkest parts of our justice system.
Speaker 1: We ask who are the victims?
Speaker 3: I'm Aiming McQuire and I'm Martin Hodgson, Senior Advocate at
Speaker 3: the Foreign Prisoner Support Service. And a warning this series
Speaker 3: contains the names of deceased people and includes distressing content
Speaker 3: that may upset some listeners. This week we're going to
Speaker 3: talk about the final report that's come out of the
Speaker 3: Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children Inquiry that
Speaker 3: was held by the Australian Parliament and that's been running
Speaker 3: for about the.
Speaker 1: Last two years.
Speaker 3: But before we get into what the recommendations are, what
Speaker 3: our views of those recommendations are, and the inquiry pro
Speaker 3: sense itself, I first wanted to get Amy to comment
Speaker 3: on what's happened in terms of the reporting of the inquiry.
Speaker 3: Now that the final report has been handed down, So Amy,
Speaker 3: can you tell us a little bit about what the
Speaker 3: media response has been.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Martin, and I think it's important to preface this
Speaker 2: with mentioning that the very reason one of the reasons
Speaker 2: the inquiry was called was because there was a silence
Speaker 2: around the issue of disappeared Aboriginal women, which has been
Speaker 2: called a missing e murdered Indigenous women and girls, and
Speaker 2: so it was really about in a way, breaking that
Speaker 2: silence understanding the crisis. Well, that seemed to be the
Speaker 2: reason behind it. But the report was tabled last Thursday
Speaker 2: in the Senate. It was tabled i think after three
Speaker 2: point thirty and it led to about six or seven
Speaker 2: media reports.
Speaker 1: So this was supposed to be a landmark inquiry.
Speaker 2: This was the first inquiry ever held in this country
Speaker 2: into the crisis of missing a murdered Indigenous women and girls,
Speaker 2: and yet the media largely ignored it. You know, you
Speaker 2: look at the scale of what an inquiry like this
Speaker 2: and how it should be covered, and even despite the
Speaker 2: facts that Martin and I are going to be really
Speaker 2: critical of what actually came out of the report, you
Speaker 2: would expect that there would be way more coverage than
Speaker 2: there has been, and there just hasn't been any of that.
Speaker 2: And you can only conclude that it's because, as usual,
Speaker 2: the nation doesn't care about what is happening to Aboriginal
Speaker 2: women and girls. It just doesn't care, and that's what
Speaker 2: we've been saying throughout this podcast, and it's been shown
Speaker 2: again and just by way of comparison, the week after
Speaker 2: around Thursday, the Assurised Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner
Speaker 2: Michayla Cohen then appeared at the National Press Club in
Speaker 2: Canberra and she was giving the first update into the
Speaker 2: National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. That
Speaker 2: resulted in way more coverage in the mainstream media just
Speaker 2: her comments in the National Press Club. I should also
Speaker 2: note that there were several media outlets that just didn't
Speaker 2: even mention the tabling of the report into missing emergent
Speaker 2: Indigenous women and girls, and that was The Australian, the
Speaker 2: Wanting Herald, in the Age. There was just nothing about
Speaker 2: it in that coverage and so it's very very disappointing.
Speaker 2: It puts the lie to this idea that the report
Speaker 2: is in any way landmark, because it just seems like
Speaker 2: the Nations media don't again does not.
Speaker 1: Care about the crisis. And I think it leads to
Speaker 1: our concerns that I didn't even think the Inquiry considered
Speaker 1: it a crisis.
Speaker 2: Martin, Can I ask you what were your thoughts in
Speaker 2: relation to this when it was released on those day.
Speaker 3: In terms of the coverage, I was surprised. You know,
Speaker 3: I will speak about the report itself, but in terms
Speaker 3: of the coverage, I was surprised that there was so little,
Speaker 3: even if the coverage was going to be negative of
Speaker 3: the inquiry.
Speaker 1: Maybe there were media.
Speaker 3: Outlets who thought it was some sort of landmark breakthrough
Speaker 3: because normally these sorts of inquiries are easy fodder for
Speaker 3: journalists to get articles up and to get column in.
Speaker 3: So I mean, if you look back ten years ago
Speaker 3: when there was the inquiry into the construction industry in
Speaker 3: New South Wales. Again that was a similar two year inquiry.
Speaker 3: There was an enormous amount of media afterwards. The inquiry
Speaker 3: was tabled in the Federal Parliament, even though it was
Speaker 3: from the New South Wales Parliament. There was debate in
Speaker 3: the New South Wales and Federal Parliament over the inquiry
Speaker 3: its recommendations. There was an enormous amount of media finger
Speaker 3: pointing and it really raised the issue of construction insolvency.
Speaker 3: But again it goes back to what we've talked about
Speaker 3: so often and the way this country just does not
Speaker 3: care about Aboriginal women and children. That the construction of
Speaker 3: houses and high rises was deemed far more important than
Speaker 3: the murder and forced disappearance of Aboriginal women and children.
Speaker 3: And again, I just don't know how people aren't disgusted,
Speaker 3: and I don't know what is wrong with the Australian
Speaker 3: media if they can't see why it's so important that
Speaker 3: they cover this issue and mardin.
Speaker 2: The other thing that really annoys me is that we're
Speaker 2: literally only talking about and we can only really talk
Speaker 2: about the fact there was no coverage. I think just
Speaker 2: the fact that there's such a silence means that we
Speaker 2: can't even begin talking about how a lot of the
Speaker 2: way this issue is framed is really problematic, because I
Speaker 2: found myself in a situation where I was grateful for
Speaker 2: the media outlets who did report in it, but still
Speaker 2: concerned at the same time about the reporting of it.
Speaker 2: And I think some of it because of the inquiry
Speaker 2: and how it replicates a lot of the issues with
Speaker 2: the way this crisis has been looked at. It's replicated
Speaker 2: in a lot of the media reporting, and so there.
Speaker 1: Are two dimensions to the silence.
Speaker 2: There's the fact that there is just no coverage at
Speaker 2: all given the scale of what is happening the fact
Speaker 2: this is supposed to be landmark inquiry, but then there's
Speaker 2: the other silencing of the voices of women and families
Speaker 2: and the actual issues that are foregrounding what is happening
Speaker 2: in this country.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what puts us.
Speaker 2: In a really hard position, and it means the inquiry,
Speaker 2: like I just feel like the inquiry was meaningless, Like
Speaker 2: I feel like it hasn't delivered anything. In fact, in
Speaker 2: some ways it takes us steps backwards because people will
Speaker 2: refer to the inquiry as if that's what's happening when
Speaker 2: we can see the problems of the inquiry itself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think that's the real problem here.
Speaker 3: Is a bad inquiry is one thing, but a it
Speaker 3: wasted two years of vital time when work needed to
Speaker 3: be done on this issue and be as you say,
Speaker 3: people are into the future now will refer to this
Speaker 3: inquiry as if the recommendations of the inquiry are the answers,
Speaker 3: when we know they're not, and they when they can't
Speaker 3: even frame the issue correctly, and the senators involved clearly
Speaker 3: didn't understand the issue, then that is a terrible way
Speaker 3: to go forward.
Speaker 2: The other issue that come out of the inquiry that
Speaker 2: was quite shocking is that it only delivered ten recommendations.
Speaker 2: And for our listeners like this inquiry was influenced by
Speaker 2: what was a landmark inquiry in Canada, which still didn't
Speaker 2: come without its issues. But there was an inquiry in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen into the crisis of Missing aout Diesian is
Speaker 2: ruining girls in Canada and it led to two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty carps of actions and one of the one
Speaker 2: of the central findings of that inquiry was that what
Speaker 2: was happening in relation to Aboriginal women being targeted for
Speaker 2: violence and disappeared was at the root cause it was
Speaker 2: genocide and it was part of the genocide and how
Speaker 2: it operates in set of colonial societies.
Speaker 1: Madam, when you look at these recommendations.
Speaker 2: What are your initial goals and what were your initial
Speaker 2: thoughts and what are you thinking now.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, let's run through those recommendations. But as you said,
Speaker 3: I've been involved in a number of inquiries at the
Speaker 3: federal level over the years to do with all sorts
Speaker 3: of issues, and normally the number of recommendations exceeds one
Speaker 3: hundred and if it doesn't, it might be I mean,
Speaker 3: just looking at the most recent one I was involved in,
Speaker 3: there was eighty seven very detailed recommendations. So for this
Speaker 3: inquiry to have sat for more than two years and
Speaker 3: come back with ten, it's just another slap in the face.
Speaker 3: And I think it's worse when people hear what those
Speaker 3: recommendations are, the first of which is that the federal,
Speaker 3: state and territory governments co design a culturally appropriate way
Speaker 3: to remember First Nations women and children who have been
Speaker 3: murdered and disappeared. I don't really think that is a
Speaker 3: recommendation that an inquiry should come up with. It should
Speaker 3: just be the jumping off point for why this is
Speaker 3: so important. And it also I found that offensive in
Speaker 3: the sense it suggests that that hasn't been done, when
Speaker 3: the reality is families have been finding ways to honor
Speaker 3: their loved ones for decades and decades and decades and
Speaker 3: still do in their fight for justice for them. So
Speaker 3: I thought that was an appalling way to get off
Speaker 3: to a start with these recommendations.
Speaker 2: Mardin, I just couldn't believe that was the first recommendation
Speaker 2: rather than a recommendation to stop the violence being inflicted
Speaker 2: upon First Nations women and girls. I thought it was
Speaker 2: so interesting that rather it's just an expectation that First
Speaker 2: Nations women and girls are going to continue to be targeted,
Speaker 2: and so instead we must think of ways to remember them.
Speaker 2: It's almost like that continual logic that you know, of
Speaker 2: course black women are going to.
Speaker 1: Be continually killed.
Speaker 2: And I feel that so much in the way that
Speaker 2: you know, even I was reading because there's a supposed
Speaker 2: rapid review which had no.
Speaker 1: Aboriginal women on. This review was being released on Friday, and.
Speaker 2: I'm just reading these continual statistics about Aboriginal women being
Speaker 2: thirty three more likely to be hospitalized.
Speaker 4: And I read that statistic all the time, all the time,
Speaker 4: and it's never about well, let's look into that statistic,
Speaker 4: or let's look at ways that we can prevent violence,
Speaker 4: let's look at who is targeting Aboriginal women, or what
Speaker 4: are the conditions in which this is being allowed to happen.
Speaker 1: Instead, it's just a Caul statistic.
Speaker 2: And I felt that in the first recommendation, recognize and
Speaker 2: remember rather than stop what is being happened. And also
Speaker 2: there's no word on the first recommendation on justice and
Speaker 2: what justice will look like.
Speaker 3: No and nothing on justice, nothing on the suffering that
Speaker 3: has taken place. Nothing on the fact that there was
Speaker 3: this almost acceptance that this is going to continue, and
Speaker 3: consigning Aboriginal women and children to their death before they've
Speaker 3: even died. I just thought it was disgusting. And Recommendation
Speaker 3: two starts to give us an idea about why there
Speaker 3: are so many failures, and it's the largest recommendation from
Speaker 3: the inquiry, and it really comes down to having the
Speaker 3: Attorney General tasking police ministers with reviewing existing police practices
Speaker 3: and for them to aim to implement best police practices
Speaker 3: by the end of twenty twenty five. And when they
Speaker 3: say that, they make the recommendations for cultural awareness training,
Speaker 3: trauma informed practices, recruiting and promotion, promoting Aboriginal women and
Speaker 3: men into more senior positions in the police forces, and
Speaker 3: setting out appropriate guidelines for reviewing past cases. Again, nothing
Speaker 3: about being proactive, nothing about addressing the racism of the police,
Speaker 3: and absolutely zero about the fact that in so many
Speaker 3: of these cases the police are directly involved in the
Speaker 3: murder and disappearance of Aboriginal women and children.
Speaker 2: I think that's exactly it, Martin, and I think it
Speaker 2: goes back to another thing, like we've continually. I think
Speaker 2: we've done like three episodes on the inquiry as it's
Speaker 2: been going on, and all of the episodes have been
Speaker 2: prefaced with this ongoing concern that they won't recognize what
Speaker 2: you just said, that the police are actively involved in
Speaker 2: creating these conditions in which Aboriginal women can be targeted
Speaker 2: for violence. And we've made that case very clearly through
Speaker 2: a lot of the stories that we've talked about and
Speaker 2: a lot of the work that we both do, and
Speaker 2: we were always concerned that this is what was going
Speaker 2: to happen, and it was a concern that was our colleagues.
Speaker 2: Debbie Kiroy at Sisters Inside basically said to the inquiry
Speaker 2: when she gave evidence, she said, if this if your
Speaker 2: recommendations are just going to be cast or responses, then
Speaker 2: we're not going to accept the inquiry.
Speaker 1: And that's all they've done.
Speaker 2: And I felt like they could have made these recommendations
Speaker 2: at the very beginning, rather than take the families and
Speaker 2: everyone involved in this issue through two years in which
Speaker 2: they were going to just deliver these issues. And I saw,
Speaker 2: this is the other thing I have with the media
Speaker 2: framing is that so much of the media accepted this
Speaker 2: recommendation uncritically as if this is a substantial and concrete recommendation,
Speaker 2: when we know instead it's actually going to harm black women,
Speaker 2: because we've seen how more policing actually over criminalizes Aboriginal women.
Speaker 1: Again, and we've made.
Speaker 2: The case several times that criminalization leads to further violence
Speaker 2: against black women. And you only have to look at
Speaker 2: the experiences of Aboriginal women who are incarcerated.
Speaker 1: At horrific rates. They're all victims of violence.
Speaker 2: And then we've made the case continually that when they're
Speaker 2: taken away from their communities and they leave jail, they
Speaker 2: become even more vulnerable for ongoing violence. And so cultural
Speaker 2: awareness training that's not going to do anything. Training courses
Speaker 2: aren't going to do anything more. Black cops aren't going
Speaker 2: to do anything appropriate guidelines to the review past cases
Speaker 2: police again investigating their own failures. I just don't see, Like,
Speaker 2: how is I didn't even know what to say to
Speaker 2: this recommendation.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I must say that it goes directly
Speaker 3: against what I spoke to the inquiry about, which is
Speaker 3: the criminalization of Aboriginal women and children and the targeting
Speaker 3: of Aboriginal women and children by the police. And the
Speaker 3: way that would women in particular at risk. And we
Speaker 3: don't have time to go over it now, but I
Speaker 3: went through a number of cases of Aboriginal women who
Speaker 3: have been murdered and who were murdered as a direct
Speaker 3: result of their criminalization, and so clearly there was just
Speaker 3: no listening going on, care, no concern, and one of
Speaker 3: their key recommendations, their largest recommendation, goes against all the
Speaker 3: evidence and will lead to further murders and disappearance. I
Speaker 3: just think it shows how little the committee cares, and
Speaker 3: recommendations three and four really were just that Recommendation three
Speaker 3: is that the committee monitors the progress of Recommendation two,
Speaker 3: so monitors the progress of the police a joke. I mean,
Speaker 3: they have shown the committee that they don't understand the issue.
Speaker 3: So how they will monitor the police, especially as a
Speaker 3: federal committee monitoring state police, they have no authority, so
Speaker 3: again complete lack of understanding. And Recommendation four was that
Speaker 3: first Nations person be impaneled as some sort of commissioner,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't clear in the recommendation what that level
Speaker 3: would be, whether the person would be a deputy commissioner,
Speaker 3: what powers they would have, but that they would sit
Speaker 3: within the Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Commission. And again
Speaker 3: as we've gone to great links to point out that
Speaker 3: so many of the Aboriginal women who have been murdered
Speaker 3: and the children who have been murdered were not in
Speaker 3: domestic partnerships with the men that killed them, and so
Speaker 3: that won't address any of that issue.
Speaker 1: I think you.
Speaker 2: Raised that point really well, Mardin, and it comes back
Speaker 2: to I don't think from the very outset the inquiry
Speaker 2: has understood what it was supposed to be investigating.
Speaker 1: So it could have.
Speaker 2: Done an inquiry into family violence, but it was an
Speaker 2: inquiry I'm missing a murdered Indigenous women and girls. And
Speaker 2: what we're seeing is that in a lot of these cases,
Speaker 2: Aboriginal women have been in the were lasting with white
Speaker 2: men and they didn't have as you said, they don't
Speaker 2: have they're not in family violence relationship.
Speaker 1: It's not a family violence case, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think that's where everything is being complicated as well.
Speaker 2: But I don't think they even understood the issue, the
Speaker 2: very specific issue that we're talking about around forcibly disappeared
Speaker 2: Aboriginal women, and they're conflating it with issues of family violence,
Speaker 2: which is a really really important issue where there is
Speaker 2: expertise from Aboriginal women in relation to that sector, who
Speaker 2: should be listened to in relation to that very.
Speaker 1: Specific violence, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And yet all of these recommendations and even the inquiry
Speaker 2: is really confused about how we're talking about these two
Speaker 2: two different forms of violences, both violences affecting Indigenous women
Speaker 2: and which I both considered feminini aside or femicide, Indigenous femicide.
Speaker 2: But they're different acts, and they're different ways to understand it,
Speaker 2: and they need different responses.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And recommendation five compounds the problem because what
Speaker 3: it recommends is increased geographic spread and capacity for family
Speaker 3: violence prevention legal services. Again, that is important, but not
Speaker 3: necessarily And as we've explained in this issue again, in
Speaker 3: the case of the Barraville children murdered by a single
Speaker 3: white male serial killer, what the hell has family violence
Speaker 3: got to do with that? Mona, Lisa and Cindy Aboriginal
Speaker 3: teenage girls murdered by a single white male. You know,
Speaker 3: we've seen the same thing in Queensland, Aboriginal women murdered
Speaker 3: by white men who they weren't in domestic partnerships with
Speaker 3: what the hell would a family violence prevention legal service
Speaker 3: do to assist Aboriginal women and children who are being
Speaker 3: systematically killed by white serial killers. And we've got to
Speaker 3: name it for what it is, and we gave that
Speaker 3: information to this in and nowhere does it appear in
Speaker 3: their recommendations. Again, they talk about dysfunctional Aboriginal communities without
Speaker 3: actually saying the word. And yet, as I told the Inquiry,
Speaker 3: eighty five percent of Aboriginal women in Victoria who are
Speaker 3: in domestic partnerships are in those relationships with non Aboriginal men.
Speaker 3: So it seems that they want to fund and increase
Speaker 3: the capacity of family violence prevention legal services. That's a
Speaker 3: good thing, but in relation to this issue, it does
Speaker 3: nothing to address it.
Speaker 2: And going through the other recommendations as well, Martin, I
Speaker 2: mean we've gone through the five, it seems that this
Speaker 2: is the continual message that is being sent that it's
Speaker 2: actually not the inquiry is not actually addressing the issue
Speaker 2: that it was actually set out to address. One of
Speaker 2: the things, I mean the absence of recommendations is also
Speaker 2: around data, and one of the there's a chapter two,
Speaker 2: the second chapter of the report is all focused on data,
Speaker 2: and that was part of the terms of reference to
Speaker 2: determine the number. And I think data can be very problematic,
Speaker 2: as we've discussed many times, but it doesn't even come
Speaker 2: up in the recommendations to understand the crisis. And the
Speaker 2: reason I bring up the data issues that because I
Speaker 2: read some commentary where someone actually said a small number
Speaker 2: of horror stories perpetrated by non Indigenous men, And I'm
Speaker 2: sitting there going, how do you even know any of that?
Speaker 2: You know, like, how can you say it's a small number,
Speaker 2: and how can you say a small number doesn't mean
Speaker 2: it's deserving of a wider examination, Because what I see
Speaker 2: with a lot of the cases we've looked at is
Speaker 2: that it is the most extreme form femininis side. So
Speaker 2: I see it as a spectrum of all of these
Speaker 2: different violences that apperpetrate against Aboriginal women, and disappearing is
Speaker 2: most extreme active that And so to see it almost
Speaker 2: downgraded as if it's not worthy of concerted attention and proper,
Speaker 2: concrete recommendations and actual action makes me really annoyed and
Speaker 2: upset and not even it's almost just like they're going
Speaker 2: to you know, there was a focus at the start about, oh,
Speaker 2: we need to count which I found problematic as well.
Speaker 2: But now they've just abandoned that all together. You know,
Speaker 2: they're just going to continue to conceal what we know
Speaker 2: as a crisis.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And as I told the inquiry, fifty percent
Speaker 3: of Aboriginal women who are currently listed as missing with
Speaker 3: the federal database have gone missing away from their communities
Speaker 3: and families. And yet recommendation seeks again seeks to support
Speaker 3: services for First Nations people, including women and children expering domestic,
Speaker 3: family and sexual violence. Again a very important thing to
Speaker 3: focus on, but in relation to this issue specifically completely
Speaker 3: misses the point. And I think the reason it misses
Speaker 3: the point is what Amy just stated about data. Because
Speaker 3: they didn't take into account the facts and figures of
Speaker 3: what is actually going on and the huge percentage of
Speaker 3: Aboriginal women and children who are targeted by people outside
Speaker 3: of their family and community, they've ended up handing down
Speaker 3: recommendations that make no sense whatsoever. And as Amy said,
Speaker 3: there's nothing in the recommendations that would do anything really
Speaker 3: to focus on gaining an insight in collecting the data
Speaker 3: in the first place properly and then understanding what that
Speaker 3: data actually tells us. And recommendation seven again is just
Speaker 3: looking at implementation of services and supports that address violence
Speaker 3: in communities. Once again, very important in the area of
Speaker 3: family violence that is a crisis across this country, with
Speaker 3: women being murdered every week, that is very important. But
Speaker 3: when it comes to this issue, it completely misses the
Speaker 3: mark once again. And I have to say very plainly
Speaker 3: that for the white men around Australia who have murdered
Speaker 3: Aboriginal women and children and who have got away with it,
Speaker 3: and we know who many of those men are, and
Speaker 3: we know they're victims, if they have read this report
Speaker 3: from this inquiry, they must be over the moon. Not
Speaker 3: once was the finger pointed at them for their crimes,
Speaker 3: not once were they identified for what they've done, and
Speaker 3: nothing here suggests even any follow up or any action
Speaker 3: to be taken against them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree, Mar, and I think that's the
Speaker 2: really horrific message that this report sends and the really
Speaker 2: just toothless recommendations which are going to do nothing.
Speaker 1: It sends that issue that we know.
Speaker 2: Is a real issue, like this is the main issue
Speaker 2: why these disappearances continue to happen is because of impunity.
Speaker 2: Like we're seeing how the systems, particularly the coronial process,
Speaker 2: but also the police and then the state are actively
Speaker 2: allowing this violence to continue because they refuse to sanction it,
Speaker 2: and they refuse to even recognize a lot of these
Speaker 2: white men as perpetrators of violence.
Speaker 1: And what happens is.
Speaker 2: The message comes back, particularly to the Coronial process, is
Speaker 2: that it's the Aboriginal women who are responsible, so no
Speaker 2: violence has actually even been done to them. And this
Speaker 2: is like as a whole, what this inquiry is sending,
Speaker 2: because it's not actually making you know, there's all of
Speaker 2: these there's all of these appeals to say that it
Speaker 2: is a crisis, but they're not actually making a case
Speaker 2: that it's a crisis, because if they made that case,
Speaker 2: their recommendations would have been a lot more robust, and
Speaker 2: they wouldn't have tabled it, or they wouldn't have done
Speaker 2: it in such a way in which the news of
Speaker 2: the inquiry has been totally concealed, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's the really disturbing message that
Speaker 2: it continues to send. And I think just going into
Speaker 2: Recommendation at nine, you know, we started with the way
Speaker 2: the media has reported it.
Speaker 1: The recommended nation.
Speaker 2: Recommendation nine was the committee recommends that the Australian Press
Speaker 2: Council considers and reflects on the evidence given in this
Speaker 2: inquiry in regard to how the media portrays cases of
Speaker 2: murdered and disappeared Avery, First Nations, women and children, and
Speaker 2: talks about concerns how it can be positively addressed through
Speaker 2: advisory guidelines, which makes no sense to me because the
Speaker 2: Australian Press Council doesn't do it anything, particularly in relation
Speaker 2: to racial violence, and so that is another meaningless recommendation
Speaker 2: that doesn't understand as well in the same way as
Speaker 2: recommendation too. It doesn't understand the police and their complicity,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't understand the media and their complicity for
Speaker 2: the exact reason that you just identified, because it sends
Speaker 2: messages to perpetrators.
Speaker 1: That they have this impunity, and part of that is
Speaker 1: the media silence.
Speaker 2: Like the media is part of the reason why this
Speaker 2: crisis still exists.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there is absolutely no doubt about that.
Speaker 3: And one thing I find particularly appalling is the way
Speaker 3: that the Australian media, and we've spoken about this before,
Speaker 3: will jump all over the case of anyone who's not
Speaker 3: Aboriginal being murdered and put pressure on police, support family
Speaker 3: maintain that rage so that there is some sense of
Speaker 3: justice and something occurs. And yet when it comes to
Speaker 3: Aboriginal women and children there's nothing. So that you know,
Speaker 3: the idea that the Australian press is going to change
Speaker 3: in any way is just a joke. And finally, you know,
Speaker 3: recommendation ten was barely a recommendation and this is the
Speaker 3: final one that the Australian government systematically considers. The many
Speaker 3: recommendations and suggestions made to this inquiry, the many recommendations,
Speaker 3: there was only ten and this is number ten. And
Speaker 3: that those recommendations include trauma informed healing. Well again, that's
Speaker 3: going to post fact. Why aren't we trying to stop
Speaker 3: these murders and disappearances taking place? Again, it seeks to
Speaker 3: address violence prevention, development of Aboriginal community based support programs
Speaker 3: for men. This sounds like the Northern Territory Intervention all
Speaker 3: over again, when the blame is being placed on the
Speaker 3: very wrong people. And then it speaks about initiatives which
Speaker 3: promote a sense of individual and community responsibility for the
Speaker 3: issue of male violence against Aboriginal women. Well with that,
Speaker 3: I concur except that this inquiry had no sense of
Speaker 3: responsibility and took no sense of responsibility for the male
Speaker 3: violence committed against Aboriginal women. They didn't seek to use
Speaker 3: parliamentary privilege to name Constance Wachau's killers, to name the
Speaker 3: murderer who took the lives of the Bauerville children. They
Speaker 3: didn't seek to raise the issue of endless police failures
Speaker 3: when Aboriginal women and children go missing or it disappeared.
Speaker 3: They didn't raise the issue that in cases like one
Speaker 3: in Western Australia, when it did end up in a
Speaker 3: coroner's court, the police excuse as to why they didn't
Speaker 3: have a brief of evidence was that it got wet.
Speaker 3: We're talking about an Aboriginal woman who was murdered, the
Speaker 3: primary suspect was named by endless witnesses, and the police's
Speaker 3: excuse was the brief of evidence got wet and destroyed.
Speaker 3: And yet this inquiry would suggest that the real problem
Speaker 3: is in Aboriginal communities and that what the police need
Speaker 3: is a little cultural training. I mean, how anyone can
Speaker 3: see this as anything but a joke is beyond me.
Speaker 3: And quite frankly, the enormous amount of money that has
Speaker 3: been spent by this inquiry should have been given to
Speaker 3: the families who have suffered so tragically because this issue
Speaker 3: has not been addressed for generations. This episode was brought
Speaker 3: to you by black Cast and produced by Clint Curtis.
Speaker 3: For more, you can visit us at www dot curtin
Speaker 3: thepodcast dot com, follow us on Twitter at Curtain Podcast,
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Speaker 3: backslash Curtain Podcast