Paper Petition

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that Indigenous people of Queensland are still imprisoned at 14 times the rate of non-Indigenous people, largely unchanged since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 11 years ago. Many of those in prison are there for relatively minor offences because poverty means they cannot pay fines.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to (a) not include offences like disorderly behaviour, indecent language, use of abusive or insulting words, insufficient lawful means of support, begging, and habitual drunkenness in the Summary Offences Bill in preparation; (b) establish instead properly funded diversionary systems to treat substance abuse, depression and despair, and psychological trauma, that are the historical legacy of the country’s treatment of Indigenous communities, (c) act to reduce over-policing of Indigenous people, particularly urban youth, as this oppresses Indigenous communities and leads to provoked offences; (d) adopt genuine negotiations as equals with each Indigenous community, and sub-communities as necessary, as the appropriate process to achieve long- term progress on the issue of over-imprisonment of Indigenous people.