Karen Iles gives evidence at the Federal Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children
We know there is a Domestic and Family Violence Epidemic in Australia - but what about Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children?
In 2024 the National spotlight has swivelled around to focus on the deaths of women at the hands of their male partners and former partners. There is a national “count” of women who are killed by men in Domestic and Family Violence situations. It is approaching two women every week. We have had our Prime Minister attend national demonstrations calling for change, a National Cabinet meeting, a meeting of Police Ministers from across the country. New proposals for law reform are being brought forward, and enacted, on a regular basis. This is positive.
What hasn’t made the spotlight is the hundreds of murders and disappearances of First Nations Women and Children across this country.
There is no “count” of First Nations women who are disappeared and murdered (often sexually assaulted as well). ABC 4Corners estimates from their research that
“At least 315 First Nations women have either gone missing or been murdered or killed in suspicious circumstances since 2000. What we do know is that First Nations women are being murdered at up to 12 times the national average. In some regions, their deaths make up some of the highest homicide rates in the world.” (ABC 4Corners)
In 2022 the Australian Senate established an Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children. The Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee has extended the reporting date of their Inquiry to 15 August 2024.
The Terms of Reference of the inquiry includes, but is not limited to:
the current and historical practices, including resources, to investigating the deaths and missing person reports of First Nations women and children in each jurisdiction compared to non-First Nations women and children;
the institutional legislation, policies and practices implemented in response to all forms of violence experienced by First Nations women and children;
the systemic causes of all forms of violence, including sexual violence, against First Nations women and children, including underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes contributing to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of First Nations women and children;
In my legal practice we routinely represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in a range of matters. We represent women experiencing sexual assault, gender and race-based discrimination and harassment as well as First Nations women in business - supporting them with their employment and corporate law needs. As an Aboriginal woman myself, and a woman who speaks publicly about my own (poor) experience of the police and justice system in relation to childhood sexual assault - I’m a magnet for disclosures.
In my work there aren’t many First Nations women I come across who don’t have a first hand experience of a woman or a child within their family or community being disappeared, murdered and sexually assaulted. A grim colonialist trifecta.
I am proud to be a Non-Executive Director of the National Justice Project. Their team undertake critical, funded by philanthropy, work to represent and support First Nations families to advocate for, and participate in, coronial inquests.
On 23 April 2024 the Coronial Inquest into the death of Mona Lisa and Jacinta Smith was handed down. It took the family more than 30 years of advocacy to achieve an inquest. Something no family should have to do - but is so often the case for Aboriginal families. The findings are daming. Damning of the white man, Alexander Ian Grant, who was responsible for the girls deaths and for sexually assaulting Cindy, but damning of the police and justice response. The coroner found that the "inexplicably deficient” police investigation was tainted by racial bias. Findings of systemic racism within NSW Police, and other police forces across the Country, is not a one-off.
“Indigenous women experience higher rates of violence as a direct result of this erasure of perpetrators, which creates a culture of impunity.” (Amy McQuire, Sisters Inside & Institute for Collaborative Race Research - submission to the Inquiry)
So often we hear of the problem of violence against First Nations women and children being a problem “within community” and for First Nations people to solve. But the disappearances, murders and sexual assaults of First Nations Women and Children are more often than not at the hands of non-Indigenous men. It has been this way since the European “settlers” came to my ancestral lands along the Hawkesbury River in Sydney.
“Violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia is not seen as sufficiently problematic to warrant proper police investigation, judicial redress or media reporting. The Canadian Inquiry found that these state behaviours create a culture within which people can perpetrate violence against Indigenous women and know that they are safe from consequences. This the fundamental reason that Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people experience all forms of violence at much higher rates than others in Australia.” (Amy McQuire, Sisters Inside & Institute for Collaborative Race Research - submission to the Inquiry)
As lawyers we must help swing the national spotlight onto the issue of non-Indigenous male violence against First Nations women and children. Only then will we start to see the legislative reform, police reform and justice system responses that can begin to play a role in ending violence against First Nations women and children.
On 20 February 2024 I was invited to give evidence at the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children. Here is a fraction of the evidence I gave. The full version can be accessed on Hansard or listened to on the Parliament website.
“Today I'll speak about three categories of crimes: abduction, sexual assault, and murder. They often go hand in hand. [...] Sexual assault is often omitted in the discussion of missing—I should say 'abducted'—Aboriginal women and children. Similarly, when we speak of the violence against Aboriginal women and children, the narrative is often of domestic and family violence with Aboriginal men as perpetrators. But this inquiry is about perpetrators who are non-Indigenous men. [...] In 2022, an inquiry by Her Honour Judge Deborah Richards, the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service Responses to Domestic and Family Violence, had very strong words to say about the Queensland police force. She labelled them as 'sexist, misogynist and racist'. This context is critical when we look at this issue today.
I want to focus on seven solutions [...] I provide these solutions and actions as a legal practitioner with experience in this area and as someone with my own lived experience. I've been given permission to pose these solutions by other Aboriginal women who I hold in high regard. [...]
National principles on how police investigations must, at a minimum standard, be conducted. Unenforceable police codes of conduct, operating procedures and victims' charters of rights are not cutting it. Victims must know what to expect and get it, no matter who they are, what colour their skin is, what mob they're from or when they report to police. These minimum standards must be enshrined in the law in states and territories so that justice can be applied evenly and without gender based and race based discrimination. That was a recommendation from the Australian Law Reform Commission report in 2018, Pathways to justice—an inquiry into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The recommendations said that the law should be: “… enforced fairly, equally and without discrimination with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” That includes victims and their families.
A national and nationwide duty of care is owed by police to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims or, if they're dead, their families. Police must not harm and must not traumatise victims and their families through negligent actions and deliberate actions. This should be enshrined in law, nationally and in the states and territories. Police must be held to the same standard as other government officials and professionals. Police action can cause harm, and they must have a 'do no harm' ethos. Their fundamental role in our society is to protect every single person—not to pick and choose and exercise discretion but to protect every single person equally and without discrimination. The duty of care must be extended to victims-survivors of sexual assault and the families of abducted and murdered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is not a duty of care to every woman and her dog but to a limited amount of people in our society who have already suffered unspeakable crimes. A duty of care means having a duty of care to mental health and wellbeing, and it means police not acting with negligence or recklessness when carrying out their duties.
A national state and territory police complaints integrity corruption commission is needed, and it needs to follow the Northern Ireland model. Bodies in each state and territory are routinely criticised for their lack of transparency, accountability and justice. The Yoorrook commission has just reported on the inquiry into the LECC in New South Wales, which happened last year. The conflict of interest of police investigating police is absolutely laughable and Orwellian. We wouldn't accept it in any other profession. I believe the Northern Ireland model is an instructive model, and I would urge the commission of inquiry to recommend a deep dive into how that body could be set up nationally in Australia. Essentially, it is an independent body that is not staffed by police or former police. When they receive a complaint, if they determine it and find that the police were negligent or lacking in proper conduct, they have the power to refer it to prosecution, and they have the power to reinvestigate, rather than giving the victims back to the same police force who wronged them so badly. That model has been recognised and recommended in the Yoorrook commission and also the commission of inquiry in Queensland by Judge Richards, which I referred to earlier.
A national independence complaints and compensation scheme to address police negligence, with all states and territories contributing. States and territories are conflicted in claims against them, just as we've seen institutions like the Catholic Church struggle with this. As a society, we set up the royal commission and a national redress scheme. We must provide access to some form of justice to end the unresolved trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in the aftermath of murders, sexual assaults and abductions.
Research into the connection between poor police responses to abduction, sexual assault and murder, and the suicide of the victim or the victim's family members. I've spoken about that in camera. We simply don't have the numbers, just the qualitative examples. Suicide as a result of poor interaction with police is widespread. From what I'm aware of and privy to through my networks and clients, I believe that at least every week a victim of sexual assault or a family member of a victim who doesn't get justice commits suicide. They're driven there by the helplessness that an absence of access to justice leaves. Police truly do have the blood of victims on their hands.
A national truth and justice commission regarding the abduction, sexual assault and murder of First Nations women and children. This must be accompanied by state-funded legal representation for victims-survivors and their families, restorative justice and compensation schemes, just like there were for victims of institutional child abuse. In the case of the truth and justice commission, it must include scope for an inquiry into violence—not just crimes by individuals but crimes by the instruments of the state, such as police—and the physical and mental harm that retraumatisation causes by the interaction with victims and families.
A national alternative to police for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims and their families for those who have been abducted or murdered or are victims of sexual assault. We must provide alternative pathways to access to justice. We need legislation to empower a civilian body at a nationwide level to receive reports of harm and to be able to coordinate a response. This will eliminate the need for victims-survivors and their families to be interacting with police as much as possible. I come from an employment law background. In employment law, we would treat this through a risk assessment lens. You need to eliminate the hazard. Police are the hazard to our people. Police are the hazard to our mental health and wellbeing. Of course there can be training, and there has been for decades. Of course there are individual police officers who are doing a fabulous job, and I'm sure that those First Nations officers who are sitting behind me in this inquiry today are doing a fabulous job. However, inquiry after inquiry finds that, systemically, the police force consists of sexist, misogynist and racist culture. We can never get justice. Until that is resolved, police are not safe for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims and their families to deal with.”
The Inquiry is due to report on 15 August 2024.