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Independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s motion for the Attorney-General to provide quarterly reports on deaths in custody has passed the Senate.
The reports will have to detail, by state and territory, the number of deaths in custody, including breakdown by age groups and cause of death; ongoing coronial inquests; incidents of self-harm in custodial settings; and miscarriages and stillbirths in custodial settings.
Posting to X (formerly Twitter), Senator Thorpe said that this motion passing will mean that governments will be held accountable.
“Regular reporting will mean federal politicians can’t keep hiding the truth about abuses occurring in prisons,” the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman said.
There have been 15 Blak deaths in custody since the beginning of the year.
Minister for Finance Katy Gallgaher spoke on behalf of the Labor government, opposing the motion.
Minister Gallagher mentioned the real-time deaths in custody dashboard available on the Australian Institute of Criminology’s website.
“This important transparency measure is already in place. State and territories not the commonwealth hold the information that Senator Thorpe is calling for in this motion… it is not a reasonable request,” she said.
The motion passed with the support of all non-government senators