An Indigenous advocate has asked how many more "talkfests" are needed before the ACT government addresses the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canberra's criminal justice system.
On Friday, Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said the ACT continued to see "unacceptable levels of over-representation of First Nations people in our justice system" and that an independent review had been commissioned.
"The idea of this review is to see how we're going against recommendations made by the Australian Law Reform Commission in their Pathways to Justice report," Mr Rattenbury said.
The Pathways to Justice report was tabled in federal parliament in 2018 and made 35 recommendations to turn around the rising rate of imprisonment among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women.
This week, figures were released showing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now make up 26 per cent of the Canberra prison population.
According to the Productivity Commission, the ACT has Australia's worst gap in incarceration rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents.
The latest data, for 2021-22, shows Indigenous Canberrans are more than 15 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous Canberrans.
Nationwide, Indigenous Australians are 12 times more likely to be imprisoned.
Mr Rattenbury said the review would be led by First Nations people.
"The government has started to write to local community organisations, local service providers to consult on the terms of reference for this piece of work," he said.
"We want to work very closely with the community to develop this review and to make sure that they are comfortable and supportive of the terms of reference, also who the reviewers will be."
The government said an interim report would be delivered by March 2024, with a final report to be completed late that same year.
'How many talkfests do we have to have?'
But Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service CEO Julie Tongs said she did not welcome the review as a sign of action from the government.
"The government needs to satisfy an agenda," she said.
"It's not about the government committing to this community and to do something about it, it's them committing to do what they should have done years ago.
"How many more talkfests do we have to have, how many more reviews, evaluations do we need, to tell us what we already know?
"It's very, very frustrating, when we're here every day picking up the pieces of shattered lives, and it should've been prevented in the first place."
Ms Tongs said a review did not go far enough.
She said it was two years since she and others within the local Indigenous community had called for a royal commission that would, in part, look at the rate of First Nations people in Canberra's jails.
"It's got worse in the last two years, and I can't see it improving any time soon," she said.
"We know what the problems are and they need to make it broader than just the over-representation.
"They've got to look at poverty and homelessness — they are two of the biggest drivers that are driving our people, my people, into the system."
She said there were people being jailed who would be better placed in other facilities.
"What a waste of money that is," she said.
"When really, they should be in a mental health or a drug and alcohol facility."
Mr Rattenbury said his view was that addressing other social issues was key to reducing incarceration.
"The surest way to keep people out of custody is to cut poverty," he said.
"And so that's where calls for increasing the rate of unemployment benefits and a range of other measures are incredibly important.
"Certainly, my view is that justice reinvestment is central to reducing that over-representation and reducing incarceration generally, and that is spending our money on the things that avoid people being involved in the criminal justice system in the first place."
