Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, has acknowledged there have been "too many" Indigenous deaths in custody, saying the federal government is continuing to pressure states and territories to meet their Closing the Gap commitments.
Wednesday marked 35 years since the findings of the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) were handed down. Since then, at least 630 Indigenous people have died in custody, with only one police or prison officer ever found criminally responsible for their role in any of the deaths.
In a statement, Senator McCarthy acknowledged the profound anguish still being experienced by Indigenous families across the country.
"Too many First Nations families and communities have experienced the grief of a loved one's death in custody," she said. "I know this grief, my family knows this grief."
View this post on Instagram
The RCIADIC's 339 recommendations for reform included that incarceration should only be used as a last resort — a principle which has since been wound back in several states and territories.
Despite those recommendations, 2025 recorded the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody since records began in 1979, with 42 per cent of those who died unsentenced, in what NSW Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan described as a "profoundly distressing milestone".
Senator McCarthy noted the RCIADIC found the most effective way to reduce deaths in custody was to reduce incarceration rates — something all governments have committed to under the Closing the Gap agreement.
"Our government is working with states and territories who hold the levers for change to the justice system," she said.
"As Minister, I will continue to hold states and territories accountable for their Closing the Gap commitments. Closing the Gap and keeping communities safe are not opposing objectives."
There has been widespread outrage over laws introduced across the country — by both Labor and Liberal governments — which experts argue increase the likelihood of more Indigenous deaths in custody.
These include life sentences for children in Victoria and Queensland, stricter youth bail laws in NSW, and harsher bail laws in the Northern Territory, which has contributed to more than one per cent of the population being behind bars.
Last year, the family of the late James Henry Muirhead QC — who led the RCIADIC — called on the Prime Minister to intervene and override what they described as the "regressive actions currently being pursued by the Northern Territory Government" on justice and incarceration.
View this post on Instagram
The latest Closing the Gap data found incarceration rates are only rising across the country, whilst there has been no reduction in the prison rates for children and young people.
However, during his Closing the Gap address in February, the Prime Minister appeared to back the states' and territories' approach, arguing they "have every right to put the safety of their communities first".
On Wednesday, experts and advocates said more needed to be done, including implementing all of the RCIADIC's recommendations.
While a Deloitte-led review of the Royal Commission findings in 2018 found 78 per cent of the 339 recommendations had been fully or mostly implemented, that assessment was labelled "highly questionable" by the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.
Arrernte man and Children's Ground co-chair, William Tillmouth, who this year was awarded the Human Rights Medal by the Australian Human Rights Commission, said the RCIADIC clearly set out the changes required, yet many remain unfulfilled.
"This country continues to invest in systems that punish our people instead of supporting them," Mr Tillmouth said. "That approach is driving more people into custody and keeping them there. Our children are being prescribed a future instead of having the opportunity to determine their own."
View this post on Instagram
Amnesty International Australia's Indigenous Rights Advisor and Palawa Elder, Uncle Rodney Dillon, said no one was being held accountable for the continual deaths.
"This ongoing massacre would not have occurred had the Commission's recommendations been fully implemented," he said. "Yet they continue, even as recently as just weeks ago."
The federal government has pointed to its investments in restorative justice, including justice reinvestment and the National Access to Justice Partnership — which helps fund community legal groups — as measures aimed at preventing incarceration at its source.
There is also a proposal for state and territory officials, alongside the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, to trial or expand Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector-led healthcare in prisons and youth detention facilities, with ministers to report back to a joint First Nations and Health Ministers Meeting at the end of the month.
"Our government is focused on community-led solutions to stop people coming into contact with the justice system," Senator McCarthy said, "with record funding for justice reinvestment".
