First Nations families who have lost loved ones have described a “systemic failure of police” to investigate properly, an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children has heard.
The landmark parliamentary inquiry has heard from families of those who have been killed or who have disappeared this week.
The chair of the committee and Queensland Liberal senator Paul Scarr said hearing the harrowing testimony from the inquiry had been difficult, with the impact of violence reverberating through families and communities.
“I think if Australians knew more about this issue, they would be absolutely horrified to hear the stories we’re hearing and the experiences that First Nations women and children, and their families, have gone through in this country,” Scarr told Guardian Australia.
“This is trauma through the generations,” Scarr said.
Public submissions have highlighted the lack of resources for Indigenous women’s safety and legal services, barriers to missing person’s reports and the impact of colonisation that contributes to ongoing violence, leading to women and children’s disappearances and deaths.
Scarr said a constant theme of the inquiry’s evidence was on barriers facing First Nations people’s attempts to raise their concerns with police jurisdictions and a lack of data on missing and murdered Indigenous women and children.
Scarr said it was too early to tell whether there would be wide-ranging calls for systemic change directed at law enforcement and other agencies.
“We’re still in the process of collecting the evidence,” Scarr said. “We’ve got a very open mind with respect to the recommendations that we’ll be looking to consider as a committee and ultimately to include in a report.”
The Greens senator Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe, a former Greens senator who is now an independent, triggered the inquiry.
Cox said the inquiry had been hearing from families who had lost loved ones, including young children, in “horrific” ways. Witnesses had told the committee they felt failed by the police and the justice system.
“They’ve been talking about systemic failure of police. The failure to fully investigate, the timeliness of investigations. How rapid the response is in relation to missing persons, murder trials, and homicide cases,” the Noongar Yamatji woman said.
She said the committee had heard from families who had been treated as perpetrators when they were victims or were arrested after going to the police trying to report missing loved ones who were then found to have been murdered.
“What we are hearing is the absolute racism that is existing because why else would there be such an inhumane response to a human life, that has been murdered or who is missing?”
Concerns have been raised recently about a lack of prominence of the inquiry, with Cox noting that much of the testimony has been presented privately to the committee to ensure the families feel safe.
“I’ve heard today in the hearings, people sleeping with the lights still on, and checking doors and not sleeping all night. They’re concerned and uneasy about even providing evidence,” she said.
Dr Hannah McGlade, a member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and women’s safety advocate, is supporting families of loved ones who have been murdered. She said radical change was needed to address the underlying causes of violence.
“We want the change now. We want the reform. We want to address the racism that is making Indigenous women so vulnerable to murder. We need to ensure there’s accountability for perpetrators,” McGlade said.
“Aboriginal women’s lives are not valued. Aboriginal women are treated in a racist, violent manner by the state and lose their lives in horrific ways. The systems are not accountable.”
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