WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 First of all, I want to acknowledge that we meet on the lands of the Kaurna people 2 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:09.440 and I pay my respects to elders past and present and pay respect to their culture, 3 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:14.960 which is just as important today as it has always been for Aboriginal people. 4 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:21.200 And I also pay my respects to Aboriginal communities from other places other than the Kaurna people. 5 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:30.100 It's a great honour to give this oration and it really sort of takes over in various ways 6 00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:36.480 because Dame Roma was such an incredible person and an incredible influence within South Australia. 7 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:45.020 And in many ways it's very audacious of me to suggest a title such as What Would Roma Say? 8 00:00:45.580 --> 00:00:50.780 And I'm just imagining something up there like this at this present point. 9 00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:55.820 But many of the things of which she spoke have resonance still today. 10 00:00:56.460 --> 00:01:04.660 And I'm going to be picking out four topics upon which she expressed real passion in her lifetime about these issues 11 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:12.560 and explore what she said and what the situation is now and what she might say now of those situations. 12 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.060 So Roma, I make a pre-emptive apology. 13 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:21.000 I hope I don't overstep and I hope I reflect what you might reasonably say. 14 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:22.620 Not what I might say. 15 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:25.360 And there might be two different matters. 16 00:01:26.360 --> 00:01:31.120 So the four areas I'm focusing on are domestic violence, gender wage gap, 17 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:36.800 disproportional incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 18 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:38.540 and racial vilification. 19 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:45.140 And I'll also fleetingly touch on euthanasia, which is a topic that Roma also spoke about. 20 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.120 So very early in her career in 1935, 21 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:55.800 Roma began acting for many women who were involved in domestic violence. 22 00:01:57.100 --> 00:01:59.940 And in Roma's words, she said they had nowhere to go 23 00:01:59.940 --> 00:02:04.560 because nobody had the power to put the husband out of the house 24 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:08.980 if the house was either his or was rented in his name. 25 00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:14.540 A woman who was subjected to violence by her husband 26 00:02:14.540 --> 00:02:18.700 and who was courageous enough to in fact remove herself and her children from her home 27 00:02:18.700 --> 00:02:20.580 were until 1940. 28 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:21.900 And she was a woman who was physically at real risk 29 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:25.060 because the guardianship was given to the father 30 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:27.680 unless a court ordered otherwise. 31 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:29.760 And that changed in 1940. 32 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:33.780 There were no shelters and little support for women. 33 00:02:34.380 --> 00:02:41.300 And as a lawyer, Dame Roma demonstrated real empathy and support for her female clients. 34 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:45.540 One client of Roma said in the 1950s, 35 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:48.120 I was a mess physically and mentally, 36 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:50.660 and it was only through your little pep talks, 37 00:02:50.660 --> 00:02:54.700 I regained self-confidence and the ability to go on. 38 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.460 So what would she say about the domestic violence figures now? 39 00:02:59.660 --> 00:03:01.160 And I'm not going to go through all of them. 40 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:02.660 Many of you would be very familiar. 41 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:04.620 I'm just going to pick out three. 42 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:10.300 One in six Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence 43 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:12.380 from a current or former partner. 44 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:16.700 And this is taking it from since the age of 15 years. 45 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:20.320 A second statistic, one in four women, 46 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:24.780 has experienced emotional abuse from a current or former partner. 47 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:32.280 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised 48 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:36.580 due to family violence-related assaults than non-Aboriginal women. 49 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:43.420 An interesting recent survey taken from some 1,400 Australians 50 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:49.080 showed that nine in 10 women had experienced verbal or physical 51 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:50.420 street harassment. 52 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.700 And it also modified their behaviour in one way or another 53 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:56.440 to protect their personal safety. 54 00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:58.600 And this is over the last 12 months. 55 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:00.800 That's astonishing, nine out of 10. 56 00:04:02.640 --> 00:04:06.080 And I think if all of you women in the room think of occasions 57 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.220 when it has struck you and what you do to accommodate. 58 00:04:10.220 --> 00:04:14.400 So what would Roma say about the level and extent of domestic violence? 59 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.960 I'd suggest it's highly likely that she would strongly 60 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:19.060 and strongly support the use of violence against women. 61 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:19.340 And I think it's highly likely that she would strongly advocate 62 00:04:19.340 --> 00:04:22.200 for an urgent and comprehensive response. 63 00:04:23.080 --> 00:04:27.880 It's well recognised that violence is based on gender discrimination, 64 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:32.000 social norms, power imbalance and gender stereotypes. 65 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:37.440 And a lot of the focus in the past has tended to be on the responses 66 00:04:37.440 --> 00:04:39.700 and services for survivors. 67 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:45.000 But the best way to reduce violence against women 68 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:46.240 and is primary prevention. 69 00:04:46.760 --> 00:04:48.700 It's called a public health approach, 70 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:51.200 and many of you in this room would have heard of that before. 71 00:04:52.440 --> 00:04:54.640 This includes community education, 72 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:58.000 as well as working and educating youth 73 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:01.980 to promote respectful relationships and gender equality. 74 00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:05.780 Working with youth is one of the best bets 75 00:05:05.780 --> 00:05:08.220 and is one of the fastest to produce 76 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:11.560 both short-term and long-term overgenerations. 77 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.140 We now have, as a result mainly of Rosie Batty and others, 78 00:05:17.340 --> 00:05:20.260 a national framework for prevention of violence 79 00:05:20.260 --> 00:05:21.740 against women and their children, 80 00:05:21.900 --> 00:05:24.500 developed only in November last year. 81 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:28.920 That includes a whole community response, 82 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:32.800 so it makes a response where each and every single one of us 83 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:36.320 has a duty and an obligation in various ways 84 00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:41.220 to do something to address the issue of domestic violence. 85 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:44.200 Coming to equal pay. 86 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:48.400 Roma was a great advocate for equal pay 87 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:50.680 early and again in her career. 88 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:55.560 She acted in many cases in the industrial court. 89 00:05:57.340 --> 00:05:59.700 And at that time, equal pay was expressed 90 00:05:59.700 --> 00:06:02.080 as being equal pay for equal work. 91 00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:05.620 So it had to be the same work being done by men and women 92 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.560 before there could be equal pay. 93 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:10.000 Okay. 94 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:13.040 And she made a later change to fit in 95 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:14.460 with the international conventions 96 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:18.640 so that the expression is equal remuneration 97 00:06:18.640 --> 00:06:20.560 for work of equal value. 98 00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:23.360 So it doesn't have to be the same work. 99 00:06:23.460 --> 00:06:25.980 It can be quite different work done 100 00:06:25.980 --> 00:06:29.700 as long as there is an equivalence or comparable value 101 00:06:29.700 --> 00:06:33.100 for the work to then result in equal pay. 102 00:06:34.700 --> 00:06:37.940 When Roma was chair of the Human Rights Committee, 103 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.560 which she was from 81 to 86, 104 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:41.540 she was a member of the National Council of Women, 105 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:41.580 and she was a member of the National Council of Women 106 00:06:41.580 --> 00:06:43.940 She criticised the gender pay gap 107 00:06:43.940 --> 00:06:47.420 and also the gender superannuation gap. 108 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:50.480 And 20 years ago, she said this. 109 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:55.060 It is critical that decisions in the industrial relations area 110 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:57.420 should be made in accordance with the principles 111 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.180 of the Sex Discrimination Act 112 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:02.360 and Australia's international obligations 113 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.240 to remove discrimination in employment. 114 00:07:06.700 --> 00:07:09.360 What is meant by the gender pay gap? 115 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.540 Many people have a confusion 116 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:13.600 on this, and for good reason. 117 00:07:14.640 --> 00:07:18.060 There are different measures of the gender pay gap, 118 00:07:18.200 --> 00:07:21.480 and it varies according to whether or not 119 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:23.080 it's a base salary for adults, 120 00:07:23.400 --> 00:07:26.660 whether it includes part-time and casual workers, 121 00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:29.960 whether it includes the whole of remuneration, 122 00:07:29.980 --> 00:07:32.600 being overtime, bonuses, etc., 123 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:36.420 whether it includes non-adult workers 124 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:38.120 and managerial earnings. 125 00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:41.540 So usually the gap between the two is very small, 126 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:42.920 and the government expresses it 127 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:44.880 as the difference between average, 128 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:47.700 ordinary-time weekly earnings 129 00:07:47.700 --> 00:07:49.760 of a full-time adult worker 130 00:07:50.540 --> 00:07:54.240 compared with the earnings of a female worker 131 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:59.260 and then a percentage of the male earnings. 132 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:00.860 So that's how it's normally expressed. 133 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:04.300 Taking the more recent figures, 134 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:05.900 if you use that baseline, 135 00:08:06.300 --> 00:08:08.600 then the gender pay gap is expressed 136 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:10.460 as usually being 19%, 137 00:08:10.460 --> 00:08:12.140 which is a shocking percentage. 138 00:08:13.460 --> 00:08:16.060 If you add in full remuneration 139 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.080 with all the bonuses, superannuation, 140 00:08:18.340 --> 00:08:19.780 other discretionary pay, 141 00:08:20.020 --> 00:08:23.260 it goes to 23.9%. 142 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:27.140 And if you add in part-time and casual workers, 143 00:08:27.420 --> 00:08:30.000 and let's face it, that's where many females work, 144 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:33.540 it is a massive 27.5%. 145 00:08:34.920 --> 00:08:40.000 Now, a gap of 19% means that women have to work 146 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.860 an additional 65 days a week to earn the same as men. 147 00:08:44.060 --> 00:08:47.100 And then if you extrapolate that into the higher percentages, 148 00:08:47.220 --> 00:08:50.240 you can see quite a number of more days 149 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:52.060 need to be worked by women 150 00:08:52.060 --> 00:08:56.140 in order to be equal in this regard to men. 151 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:58.760 Other things to notice, 152 00:08:58.900 --> 00:09:01.580 the gaps are highest at the managerial level 153 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:04.620 and they're lowest in the low occupations, 154 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:08.000 and women are clustered in the low... 155 00:09:08.160 --> 00:09:12.380 ..low occupations where the wages are usually lowest. 156 00:09:13.780 --> 00:09:17.440 All gender pay gaps matter at whatever level 157 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:21.400 because it affects social justice empowerment 158 00:09:22.160 --> 00:09:23.760 and economic perspective. 159 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:29.400 It's predominantly brought about by gender stereotyping 160 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:33.360 and it affects women's ability to get property, 161 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:37.740 superannuation, increases the reliance of women 162 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:40.260 on government assistance over a life course. 163 00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:43.920 It increases the likelihood of women living in poverty 164 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.120 and, in particular, women living in poverty at an older age. 165 00:09:50.420 --> 00:09:52.240 So, despite a lot of advances, 166 00:09:52.540 --> 00:09:56.180 the gender pay gap has remained stubbornly using it 167 00:09:56.180 --> 00:09:59.360 at the lowest rate, at around about 19% to 20% 168 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:01.040 for the last two decades. 169 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:04.120 And that's in spite of a number of initiatives 170 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:06.320 run by government through legislation, 171 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:10.040 also through organisations and industries, 172 00:10:10.260 --> 00:10:12.900 it's still remained roughly the same. 173 00:10:14.660 --> 00:10:18.360 Corporate and industrial award setting 174 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.740 sometimes is flawed 175 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:23.320 because the actual setting process, 176 00:10:23.540 --> 00:10:25.120 the evaluation of the work, 177 00:10:25.300 --> 00:10:28.280 is not using gender-neutral factors, 178 00:10:28.420 --> 00:10:30.180 it is using stereotype, 179 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:32.540 and if I can just give you an example of that. 180 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:35.980 Job factors such as... 181 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:42.600 ..empathy, social communication and handling stress, 182 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:45.640 particularly in dealing with people and the public, 183 00:10:46.540 --> 00:10:49.600 are assumed to be inherent qualities of women 184 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:51.960 and they are not highly rated 185 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:56.680 as jobs requiring a good skill and evaluation level 186 00:10:56.680 --> 00:10:57.780 for those skills. 187 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:01.520 So that is an example of gender stereotyping 188 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:04.320 working against women in feminised industries, 189 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:06.140 and in particular, 190 00:11:06.140 --> 00:11:10.520 in the social welfare, health and other sectors. 191 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.960 Another factor also in the industrial court 192 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:17.580 is that the Federal Industrial Court 193 00:11:17.580 --> 00:11:20.620 still requires a male comparator to be found 194 00:11:21.140 --> 00:11:24.920 in order to then evaluate what women's wages should be 195 00:11:24.920 --> 00:11:27.340 or in a completely different occupation. 196 00:11:28.060 --> 00:11:31.800 So it's using the men to work out the women, 197 00:11:31.880 --> 00:11:35.180 and again, gender stereotyping can be involved in there. 198 00:11:36.140 --> 00:11:38.760 And further, it's assuming that the male comparator 199 00:11:38.760 --> 00:11:41.640 in the first place has been properly assessed by the job. 200 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:43.960 A number of issues there. 201 00:11:44.460 --> 00:11:46.940 So I suggest that what Roma would say 202 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:49.260 is that we need to be very proactive 203 00:11:49.260 --> 00:11:51.920 and very accountable on gender pay, 204 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:54.800 otherwise it will not change for another two decades. 205 00:11:56.500 --> 00:11:59.380 It means that gender equity needs to be viewed 206 00:11:59.380 --> 00:12:03.060 not only by government but by corporations and boards 207 00:12:03.060 --> 00:12:06.120 as an essential business governance tool. 208 00:12:06.140 --> 00:12:06.840 And that's priority. 209 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:10.160 A bit of encouraging news, 210 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.160 and that is a recent survey that has been done 211 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:16.340 with regard to what is the effect 212 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:19.880 of increasing the number of women on governing boards. 213 00:12:20.380 --> 00:12:21.660 And it was this. 214 00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:25.740 Namely, that there have been significant reductions 215 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:27.340 in the gender pay gap 216 00:12:28.140 --> 00:12:31.520 because it trickles down into the organisation itself, 217 00:12:32.260 --> 00:12:36.120 and it has been shown that there's a 6.3% increase 218 00:12:36.140 --> 00:12:39.320 in the percentage point reduction for full-time managers 219 00:12:40.140 --> 00:12:44.280 and a 7.8% point reduction for part-time managers. 220 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:46.840 So just getting more women on boards 221 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:51.300 is going to increase the chance of lowering the pay gap 222 00:12:51.300 --> 00:12:53.980 within those organisations at all of the levels. 223 00:12:55.520 --> 00:12:59.560 Coming now to a different issue, which is Aboriginal issues. 224 00:13:00.380 --> 00:13:05.260 And Roma's passion and concerns about that go a long way back. 225 00:13:05.260 --> 00:13:08.940 And right from the 1970s, 226 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.380 Roma gave a lecture entitled The Aboriginal and the Law, 227 00:13:13.560 --> 00:13:16.420 in which she referred to government administration 228 00:13:16.420 --> 00:13:19.020 taking a paternalistic attitude 229 00:13:19.020 --> 00:13:22.100 to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders 230 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:23.640 ever since colonial times 231 00:13:24.260 --> 00:13:28.360 and adverted to a raft of legislation and practices 232 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.040 that restricted their freedom. 233 00:13:31.020 --> 00:13:33.820 I'm simply going to focus on one issue here. 234 00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:39.120 And this was an issue that she identified again in 1973, 235 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:41.620 33 years ago, 236 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:44.680 when she was chair of the Criminal Law and Penal Methods 237 00:13:44.680 --> 00:13:46.440 Reform Committee in South Australia. 238 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:50.600 And she pointed to the fact that there was an entirely 239 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:54.020 disproportional component of the prison population. 240 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:59.180 The total Aboriginal population at that time was, 241 00:13:59.300 --> 00:14:02.060 in South Australia, was less than 1%. 242 00:14:02.060 --> 00:14:06.720 But 25% of men in prison were Aboriginal. 243 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:12.180 And more than 50% of women in prison were Aboriginal. 244 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:17.360 Now, those statistics 33 years later have not changed much. 245 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:20.360 They've gone up, they've gone down a little bit, 246 00:14:20.400 --> 00:14:23.500 but they are still alarmingly high on both. 247 00:14:24.680 --> 00:14:27.560 What Roma said at the time was this. 248 00:14:27.920 --> 00:14:32.040 It would be a simple exercise to present the foregoing data 249 00:14:32.060 --> 00:14:35.460 as purported proof that the practical impact 250 00:14:35.460 --> 00:14:38.280 of the criminal law is discretionary. 251 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:41.960 Oh, Roma, if only that were true. 252 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:47.040 The data has been trotted out over and over and over again, 253 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:48.880 and it hasn't changed. 254 00:14:49.220 --> 00:14:52.640 Data alone does not change outcomes. 255 00:14:54.400 --> 00:14:57.580 So, over the past decade in South Australia, 256 00:14:57.880 --> 00:15:01.540 the prison population generally has grown by 50% 257 00:15:01.540 --> 00:15:03.640 and Aboriginal people have been hardest hit. 258 00:15:04.540 --> 00:15:06.780 But let me give you the figures for Aboriginal youth. 259 00:15:08.540 --> 00:15:14.020 Aboriginal young people comprise, in the age group of 10 to 17, 260 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:18.260 4% of the total population in South Australia, 261 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:24.600 but they make up 46% of young people in incarceration. 262 00:15:25.680 --> 00:15:30.600 And these facts are showing the intergenerational effect 263 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:34.920 of continual re-incarceration, 264 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:38.540 the children having no idea of what it is like 265 00:15:38.540 --> 00:15:41.040 other than seeing the incarceration of their relatives, 266 00:15:41.180 --> 00:15:45.060 their family, their fathers, their mothers, etc. 267 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:52.920 So, justice strategies and services which have been applied to, 268 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:56.040 usually, Aboriginal communities haven't worked. 269 00:15:56.180 --> 00:15:58.900 And I don't think anyone would dare to say that they have. 270 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:00.420 They have worked in pockets. 271 00:16:00.420 --> 00:16:01.380 But not generally. 272 00:16:02.020 --> 00:16:04.940 That's got enormous cost implications, 273 00:16:04.940 --> 00:16:09.920 quite apart from cultural and health and welfare implications. 274 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.940 In South Australia, it costs $180 million per year 275 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:17.860 to operate South Australian prisons. 276 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:23.760 And just 10% of the corrections budget goes to rehabilitation. 277 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:30.240 The cost of incarcerating a young person is $1,000. 278 00:16:30.420 --> 00:16:33.880 $1,000 per young person per day in South Australia. 279 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:39.960 The cost of, for example, community supervision is $73 per day. 280 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:42.760 Think what you could do with the dollars 281 00:16:42.760 --> 00:16:46.180 if it wasn't for incarceration and using it for incarceration. 282 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:49.060 What are the solutions? 283 00:16:50.420 --> 00:16:53.540 The social justice minister and he... 284 00:16:53.540 --> 00:16:56.400 Sorry, commissioner, which he was until very recently, 285 00:16:56.400 --> 00:16:58.840 he's now the commission... 286 00:16:58.840 --> 00:16:59.760 one of the commissioners 287 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:03.040 looking at the Don Dale investigation. 288 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:06.920 But he was Australian human rights... 289 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.420 on the Australian Human Rights Commission for many years, 290 00:17:09.540 --> 00:17:12.820 has espoused a justice reinvestment strategy. 291 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:17.540 So what's different about that from what's been done before? 292 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:23.140 So justice reinvestment works in disadvantaged communities. 293 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:25.300 It is primarily targeting 294 00:17:25.300 --> 00:17:28.800 and works within a disadvantaged community. 295 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:33.660 Initially, it was developed in the US 296 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:36.140 and it's since moved to Canada. 297 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.020 And some of the features of the original have changed, 298 00:17:39.100 --> 00:17:40.660 but the underlying is this. 299 00:17:42.560 --> 00:17:46.360 Justice reinvestment addresses the root causes of crime. 300 00:17:47.040 --> 00:17:52.140 And the community, the government, local government, NGOs and businesses 301 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:56.880 work together to identify what are the factors in that community 302 00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:58.760 which are driving crime. 303 00:17:59.760 --> 00:18:00.060 And the community is also involved in the process of 304 00:18:00.060 --> 00:18:00.600 dealing with crime and incarceration, 305 00:18:01.100 --> 00:18:02.740 particularly directed to youth. 306 00:18:03.840 --> 00:18:06.800 There's demographic mapping and data collected, 307 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:10.180 which includes types of offending, rates, patterns, 308 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:13.640 socioeconomic data, school attendance figures. 309 00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:18.760 So a complete picture is obtained of that particular community 310 00:18:18.760 --> 00:18:22.740 and in particular the cohort, in this case youth in particular. 311 00:18:23.220 --> 00:18:26.120 And the community discusses the data 312 00:18:26.120 --> 00:18:28.840 and decides what the prevention measures should be. 313 00:18:29.820 --> 00:18:33.380 And it enables the community to come up with strategies 314 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:36.620 which provide alternatives to incarceration 315 00:18:37.220 --> 00:18:40.700 so that instead the money can be used for the strategies 316 00:18:40.700 --> 00:18:41.800 which they have identified. 317 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:45.860 So we have a very good example of that in Australia 318 00:18:45.860 --> 00:18:48.280 and it's one that I've actually visited. 319 00:18:48.580 --> 00:18:50.400 And it's called the MARNUKA, 320 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:54.660 and that's spelt M-A-R-N-G-U-K-A, 321 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:56.100 Justice Reinvestment. 322 00:18:56.120 --> 00:18:58.340 In Bourke, New South Wales. 323 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:01.680 Some of you might have seen that on ABC television, 324 00:19:01.900 --> 00:19:02.460 I don't know. 325 00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:04.380 There was a very good program on that. 326 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:07.140 But if you go into the website, 327 00:19:07.320 --> 00:19:10.980 you can find out a lot about that program on the web. 328 00:19:12.280 --> 00:19:15.060 And essentially what that has done, 329 00:19:15.800 --> 00:19:17.940 and it only started in 2013, 330 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:23.200 was that the early successes have been reduced offending by youth, 331 00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:26.100 increased school attendance by children, 332 00:19:26.120 --> 00:19:29.040 and sometimes the two are very, very correlated. 333 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:33.100 There's been increased community safety. 334 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:37.220 There's better support for families in domestic violence, 335 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:38.860 particularly by the police, 336 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:43.120 that have taken a very positive attitude in Bourke. 337 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:47.660 And the availability of services for youth. 338 00:19:47.940 --> 00:19:49.360 So a simple thing. 339 00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:53.140 Youth don't need services necessarily between nine and five. 340 00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:55.320 They need them after five. 341 00:19:55.320 --> 00:19:56.980 And often until 10 o'clock. 342 00:19:57.340 --> 00:20:03.000 So they've changed the whole service providing around in Maranuka, 343 00:20:03.700 --> 00:20:05.080 to, well, Bourke, 344 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.040 to respond to what the children, the youth, need. 345 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:13.240 So I'd suggest to you that Roma might be very interested in that strategy 346 00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:15.180 and see how that can be developed. 347 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:16.900 And just a quick promo. 348 00:20:17.040 --> 00:20:20.040 I chair Justice Reinvestment South Australia. 349 00:20:20.520 --> 00:20:24.000 The South Australian government made an election promise 350 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.180 to have two trials. 351 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:25.860 The first trial was the trials of JR. 352 00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:29.260 They put a toe in the water in Port Adelaide. 353 00:20:29.420 --> 00:20:32.280 The community in Port Adelaide said in 2015, 354 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:33.720 yes, we'd be interested. 355 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:36.000 No further funding has been available. 356 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:40.160 So JRSA is going to be working with Port Adelaide 357 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:45.440 to try and work up a trial for them 358 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:47.340 with or without government support. 359 00:20:49.420 --> 00:20:50.540 In the... 360 00:20:50.540 --> 00:20:53.140 I now come to racial vilification. 361 00:20:55.180 --> 00:20:58.140 I read The Australian for the first time this morning 362 00:20:58.140 --> 00:20:59.820 for the weekend. 363 00:21:00.560 --> 00:21:03.960 So this I have written without that in mind. 364 00:21:04.820 --> 00:21:06.740 So Dame Roma, as you've heard, 365 00:21:06.820 --> 00:21:10.600 gave the inaugural speech in 1989 on this. 366 00:21:11.060 --> 00:21:14.660 But even before that, as Human Rights Commissioner, 367 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:19.740 her first report reported that in the first six months 368 00:21:19.740 --> 00:21:21.340 of the Human Rights Commission, 369 00:21:21.620 --> 00:21:24.680 they had received 381 complaints 370 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:25.940 of racial discrimination. 371 00:21:26.560 --> 00:21:31.260 And two-thirds of those were prompted by racist propaganda. 372 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:34.260 So she, at that time, said, 373 00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:36.700 this legislation has got to be introduced. 374 00:21:37.080 --> 00:21:40.800 Racial vilification was not in the legislation at that time. 375 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:44.660 She also said this on an ABC radio. 376 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:50.460 She accused Australians having a result of... 377 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:54.660 having regard to her experience with regard to racial discrimination. 378 00:21:54.680 --> 00:21:54.980 And she said that she was not a victim of racism 379 00:21:54.980 --> 00:21:56.560 in the Australian community. 380 00:21:57.060 --> 00:22:02.060 That Australians were bigoted, prejudiced, intolerant and narrow-minded 381 00:22:02.060 --> 00:22:05.620 where racial, social and moral issues are concerned. 382 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:12.140 Now, that was a highly unusual outburst for her 383 00:22:12.140 --> 00:22:14.460 because she was normally very measured 384 00:22:14.460 --> 00:22:19.120 and very well-mannered in the words in which she expressed things. 385 00:22:19.260 --> 00:22:22.140 But that shows you the level of passion 386 00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:24.480 that she felt about this particular area. 387 00:22:25.420 --> 00:22:30.000 So, in spite of Roma saying there needs to be racial vilification, 388 00:22:30.100 --> 00:22:32.560 it didn't happen until 1995 389 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:38.540 when Sections 18C and 18D were introduced. 390 00:22:39.120 --> 00:22:42.360 And they were introduced after a number of inquiries, 391 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:44.680 one being a national inquiry on racism. 392 00:22:45.260 --> 00:22:49.360 And what the inquiries and reports have found 393 00:22:49.360 --> 00:22:51.640 is that racial vilification, 394 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:55.300 can cause emotional and psychological harm 395 00:22:55.300 --> 00:22:59.380 and reinforce other forms of discrimination and inclusion. 396 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:04.580 Seemingly low-level behaviour can soften the ground 397 00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:09.960 for more severe acts of harassment, intimidation or violence 398 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:14.000 by impliedly condoning such acts. 399 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:18.200 So, in essence, Section 18C is about that long, 400 00:23:18.300 --> 00:23:20.540 Section 18D is about that long, 401 00:23:20.600 --> 00:23:22.120