Page 290 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 9 February 2021

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The reporting period, 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020, to which this statement relates bridges two Assemblies—namely, the former Ninth Assembly and the current Tenth Assembly. For the reporting period 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020 the committee—and its Ninth Assembly predecessor, the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism—considered nil statutory appointments. I now table that schedule:

Economy and Gender and Economic Equality—Standing Committee—Schedule of Statutory Appointments—9th Assembly—Period 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Alexander Maconochie Centre—racism

MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (10.46): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) in 2020, the ACT Government promised to commission a review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander overrepresentation in the Territory’s incarceration rates, which remains the highest in Australia;

(b) in 2019, the ACT Government committed $1.35 million in Justice Reinvestment funding to help address the incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;

(c) it has been acknowledged that the systemic racism that exists across our community may also exist within the Territory’s prison and impact its operation; and

(d) certain historical incidents, along with alleged incidents now under investigation, have damaged the confidence of some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans in the prison as an institution; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to commission and fund an external, independent inquiry with the obligation to:

(a) investigate and document the incidence of institutional and/or systemic racism in relation to the Alexander Maconochie Centre;

(b) develop advice and recommendations to address and eliminate this racism; and

I am pleased to bring this motion before the Assembly this morning. I do so on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans who have specifically asked this of me. I am honoured to be trusted to speak in this place on behalf of them, to raise their concerns and to bring their petition to this government.

I first want to acknowledge some ACT government commitments. These commitments are important because, when it comes to Indigenous incarceration rates, the ACT is performing very poorly. The latest Prisoners in Australia report shows

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