Criminal justice targets

16.3     The ALRC recommends that there should be national criminal justice targets to reduce both the rate of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the rate of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

16.4     These should be developed by the Commonwealth Government, in consultation with state and territory governments, and in partnership with peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

16.5     Criminal justice targets will focus attention on achieving tangible outcomes in reducing incarceration and victimisation, and improve accountability in relation to these. They will also promote whole-of-government cooperation and coordination to achieve them. Submissions considering criminal justice targets gave unanimous support to their introduction.^[1]

Closing the Gap targets

16.6     In 2005, Tom Calma AO, the then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, called on the Australian Government to commit to achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the areas of health and life expectancy within 25 years.^[2] This led to the National Indigenous Health Equality Campaign in 2006, and to the adoption of the Close the Gap Campaign that demanded state, territory and federal governments commit to closing the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians within a generation.^[3]

16.7     In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) approved the National Indigenous Reform Agreement, setting out six Closing the Gap targets to:

• close the life expectancy gap within a generation;
• halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade;
• ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four year olds in remote communities within five years;
• halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a decade;
• halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 attainment rates by 2020; and
• halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.^[4]

16.8     In 2014, a new target to close the gap in school attendance by the end of 2018 was agreed to.^[5] The 2017 Prime Minister’s Report on progress to meet these targets indicates that only the target to halve the gap in Year 12 attainment rates is on track to be achieved.^[6]

16.9     In 2017, nearing the tenth anniversary of Closing the Gap, Commonwealth, state and territory governments have agreed to work together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, organisations, communities and families on a refreshed agenda and renewed targets.^[7]

16.10  This is an opportune time to develop criminal justice targets as part of a renewed whole-of-government commitment to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage.

16.11  There have been sustained calls to adopt justice targets as part of the Closing the Gap framework.^[8] The Australian Government has previously resisted this, arguing that the adoption of additional targets will dilute the impact of existing targets, and that targets at the Commonwealth level are not appropriate, given that responsibility for criminal justice issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples largely rest with the states and territories.^[9]

16.12  However, as Chapter 2 discusses more fully, the forms of disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples that are the subject of existing targets are deeply interrelated with incarceration. As the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples argued:

Incarceration has severe flow on effects on all factors of family and community life, particularly in the case of female incarceration, and thus impacts factors like life expectancy, health outcomes and education attainment—all aspects of Closing the Gap measures.^[10]

16.13  The Australian Government can provide national leadership on this issue, and drive coordinated action to achieve the target. The Law Council of Australia submitted:

Australian governments must work together and in proper consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to find and implement effective solutions. The introduction of a justice target in the Closing the Gap framework, accompanied by a considered and properly funded intergovernmental strategy is likely to lead to greater consistency in the implementation of programs across Australia and encourage greater accountability by governments.^[11]

16.14  The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner has articulated the value of targets in terms of the cooperative action they promote:

It is not the targets in and of themselves that have led to changes but the enhanced level of cooperation at the Council of Australian Governments level and targeted increases in funding. However, without the targets in place to guide this work, and a mechanism whereby the Prime Minister annually reports to Parliament against these targets, there is a real risk that our progress would stall.^[12]

Target to reduce incarceration and victimisation

16.15  The ALRC recommends that criminal justice targets be focused on reductions in both the rate of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the rate of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The latter target is particularly significant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. As discussed in Chapter 11, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are disproportionately likely to experience family violence. Moreover, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women prisoners are highly likely to have experienced family and other violence. The ALRC considers that both targets are interrelated, and will facilitate improvements not only in the rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people come in contact with the criminal justice system, but also in community safety.^[13]

Suggested targets

16.16  The ALRC has not recommended specific targets, mindful of the need to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in developing policy relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It considers that targets should be developed in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations.

16.17  There was significant support in submissions for the targets recommended by the Change the Record Coalition, a coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights and community organisations. Its ‘Blueprint for Change’ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration rates recommended the following targets:

• close the gap in the rates of imprisonment between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by 2040; and
• cut the disproportionate rates of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to at least close the gap by 2040; with priority strategies for women and children.^[14]

16.18  Other submissions agreed that targets should be developed in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.^[15] The Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory cautioned that targets need to be realistic,^[16] while the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government endorsed the value of targets that ‘stretch’ governments to achieve them.^[17]

16.19  A number of submissions argued that ‘headline’ targets should be accompanied by sub-targets.^[18] For example, the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA) suggested that, a target to reduce incarceration could include sub-targets for:

• reduced arrest rates;
• reduced numbers of people in remand;
• increased police diversion;
• increased resourcing for Aboriginal Community Controlled programs and services;
• increased compliance rates for community-based orders; and
• increased numbers of prisoners released on parole.^[19]

16.20  ALSWA further suggested that a target to reduce violence could include sub-targets for:

• increased alternative accommodation facilities for victims and perpetrators;
• increased resources for Indigenous-specific legal services to assist victims of violence; and
• increases in culturally competent perpetrator programs.^[20]

16.21  A number of submissions argued that one sub-target should relate to resourcing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.^[21]

Targets must be supported by other frameworks

16.22  The adoption of criminal justice targets needs to be supported by a plan and resources to achieve them. The approach taken for existing Closing the Gap targets provides a model for this. Closing the Gap targets are contained within a ‘National Agreement’ between the Commonwealth and states and territories—the National Indigenous Reform Agreement.^[22]

16.23  A National Agreement is a key component of the federal financial relations framework—a framework through which the  Commonwealth  and  the  States  collaborate  on  policy  development  and  service delivery to implement that agenda.^[23] A National Agreement defines objectives, outcomes, outputs and performance indicators, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities that guide the Commonwealth and the states and territories in the delivery of services in key sectors.^[24]

16.24  The National Indigenous Reform Agreement is further supported by a number of ‘National Partnership agreements’, on specific areas, such as Indigenous early childhood development, remote service delivery and Indigenous economic participation. National Partnership agreements ‘define the mutually agreed objectives, outcomes, outputs and performance benchmarks or milestones related to the delivery of specific projects, improvements in service delivery or reform’.^[25]

16.25  The ALRC considers that criminal justice targets would need to be similarly supported by agreements within the federal financial relations framework. The recommendation for criminal justice targets in the Change the Record Coalition’s Blueprint for Change, endorsed by many of the submissions in this Inquiry, also called for a National Agreement to accompany the setting of criminal justice targets.^[26]

16.26  The ALRC also considers that regular public reporting of progress against the criminal justice targets should occur. The Prime Minister reports progress against the Closing the Gap targets to Parliament annually.^[27] When requested by COAG, the Productivity Commission is also responsible for providing an independent assessment of the progress of the Commonwealth, state and territory governments toward the Closing the Gap targets, and associated performance indicators,. Its last report to date was for the 2013–14 year.^[28]