Joint response to the Deloitte Review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

Abstract

This statement outlines concerns with the 2018 Deloitte Access Economics review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC). The statement is endorsed by 33 academic and professional experts in the policy areas examined by RCIADIC, including policy responses to Aboriginal deaths in custody. It suggests that the scope and methodology of the Deloitte review mean that it misrepresents governments’ responses to RCIADIC, and has the potential to misinform policy and practice responses to Aboriginal deaths in custody. It is also evidence of a more widespread problem in Indigenous Affairs policy-making in Australia. In particular, current approaches too often ignore the principles of self-determination and the realities of policy as experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The statement calls for the development of national independent monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations of RCIADIC, for the Federal Government to fully embrace and enact the intent of the RCIADIC recommendations, and for the Federal Government to provide a response to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Inquiry on Indigenous Incarceration Rates (2017).