Police-free probes into custody deaths ‘a must’

Investigations into deaths in custody should be handled by an independent federal body, says indigenous lawyer Joshua Creamer.

Indigenous lawyer Joshua Creamer.

Investigations into deaths in custody should be taken out of the hands of local police and coroners and handled by an independent federal body, says indigenous lawyer Joshua Creamer.

The Queensland barrister says investigations have too often been relegated to second-rate, delaye­d probes for a coroner that doesn’t get to the truth or possible culpability of someone over the death in custody.

Mr Creamer, who recently acted for Palm Island residents in their class action over mistreatment after the 2004 death in ­custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee, says every death should be investigated as if it were a murder.

“It was the recommendation of the (1987) Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, but it still hasn’t been adopt­ed across the country,’’ he says.

“We have deaths in custody, like of Mr Ward in WA, where a man essentially is cooked in the back of a police van and the police take years to provide a brief for the coroner.

“These are second-rate investigations, and police should not be investigating police.’’

Writing in The Australian on Friday, Mr Creamer, president of the Queensland Indigenous Lawyers­ and Law Students Associa­tion, says investigations of the deaths in custody of ­Mulrunji, Ms Dhu in WA, Mr Ward and others show there is disregard for Aboriginal people. He says the cases have fuelled an anger and distrust among Aboriginal people similar to that evidenced in the US at the death of African-American George Floyd.

“In watching the videos of Mulrunji, Mr King, Ms Dhu, Tanya Day and Mr Ward, the common element is the complete disregard that is shown for their life,’’ he writes. “A sense of them being less worthy of humane treatment because they are ­Aboriginal. If a police officer was stumb­ling over continually hitting his head, do we really believe other officers would sit back and not provide any assistance?

“But that is exactly what has happened here. There is an underlying irrationality applied to their suffering.’’

Mr Creamer says a new federal body, independent of police, was needed. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are continua­lly let down by the investi­gation process,’’ he writes.