Better healthcare in the prison system, including allowing prisoners to access the Medicare, National Disability Insurance Scheme and PBS, are all urgently needed, Senator Lidia Thorpe says.
The National Review of First Nations Health Care in Prisons, released earlier this week, recommended national leadership and coordinated efforts focusing on accountability, transparency, and data; First Nations-led solutions; and that First Nations community-controlled health services should be resourced to deliver health care tailored to the needs of First Peoples in prison.
Health Ministers from across the country said in a joint statement: "We commit to developing an approach to implementation in 2025, in partnership with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) sector, other key First Nations stakeholders, and Ministers responsible for corrections and youth justice."
On Thursday morning, Senator Thorpe, who earlier this year led a delegation of formerly incarcerated women to tell politicians of the hurdles and difficulties facing women in prison across Australia, said the federal government needs to take a "leading role" in ensuring the recommendations are adopted.
"For decades, our communities have pushed to stop people being killed by the system," the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung Senator said.
"Everyone has a right to see a doctor, access medication and receive treatment. But right now, people in prison aren't getting this and are dying preventable deaths."
The report found First Nations people face additional barriers to health care, and feel additional harm through disconnection from culture, family, and ways of being.
The already difficult challenges in accessing health care in prison is compounded for First Nations people, the report said, with additional barriers, including "systemic racism" and "harmful attitudes" working to further restrict health care.
"Coronial inquests have highlighted the challenges that First Nations people have in the greater likelihood of their health requests being dismissed, and informants to this review reported that First Nations people in places of detention feel that requests for help are more likely to receive a punitive rather than therapeutic response," the report said.
Senator Thorpe said for First Nations people, the treatment in prison was a "matter of life or death".
Whilst noting it was positive the federal government was taking an active concern on the issue, she argued for real change to occur, "they need to show leadership and take action".
"Solutions must be driven and determined by First Peoples and our communities, who have been calling for action since the 1991 Royal Commission," Senator Thorpe said.
In a statement, the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, said whilst they welcomed the report, they remained "deeply concerned" about critical oversights.
These include failing to "adequately address" the inability of prisoners to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the lack of ability to consult with prisoners in the report (going through intermediaries), and a recommendation for a therapeutic custody model based on one for Indigenous people in Canada, which the Network argues has been largely unsuccessful.
They called for the establishment of national standards to comply with Australia's international obligations, reform the exclusion of prisoners from the PBS, and commit to genuine engagement with prisoners.
"The problem is not a lack of knowledge about the issues—they have been well documented for decades. The problem is the absence of political will to act," Network member Debbie Kilroy said.
Senator Thorpe said it was "unacceptable" health ministers from across the country had "avoided making any real commitments to meaningful action in their joint response".
"Governments have spent decades avoiding responsibility," she said.
"A report means nothing if it's all talk and no action."
