JULIE Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, has again called for a royal commission into the Alexander Maconochie Centre following “shocking” revelations in “CityNews” about the prison’s management and the unchecked behaviour of staff.

She said that together with the spate of legal action by past and current detainees currently in train in relation to alleged breaches of the Human Rights Act at the AMC, there was justification enough for a Royal Commission. 

She said if that was not the case then it was difficult to understand what more was required.

Despite repeated requests to Labor and Greens politicians by herself and a large cohort of recognised Aboriginal leaders in Canberra for a royal commission into the over-representation of Aboriginal peoples in the justice system, and the extremely distressing and shameful life outcomes experienced by Aboriginal people in the ACT, the ACT government has refused to address their request. 

Tongs says she has, consistent with the precedent established by the Commonwealth government in establishing a royal commission into the Don Dale correctional facility in the NT, called on ACT candidates vying for election to indicate their support for the establishment by the incoming Commonwealth government of a royal commission into these issues. 

Today (May 11) she wrote to ACT candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives calling on them to indicate their support for the Aboriginal community’s aspiration for a royal commission and to support the call she and other Aboriginal leaders have made to the ACT government over more than a year. 

She said the genesis of the call for a royal commission is the nation’s worst outcomes which Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander residents of the ACT suffer across the whole range of indicators of indigenous disadvantage. 

Prison staff shock: alleged drug parties and cover ups