Reporting on implementation of the recommendations

Formal reporting on progress made on the implementation of the recommendations of the RCIADIC ceased in NSW in 2004.

The decision by the NSW Government to suspend reporting was taken in response to a recommendation of the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee (AJAC). AJAC was a body established in line with Recommendation 2 of the RCIADIC that: ‘there be established in each State and Territory an independent Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee to provide each Government with advice on Aboriginal perceptions of criminal justice matters, and on the implementation of the recommendations of this report.’

The AJAC recommendation coincided with launch of the NSW Aboriginal Justice Plan that was subsequently incorporated into the NSW Government’s Aboriginal Affairs Plan ‘Two Ways Together’.

The rationale for ceasing reporting was that relevant initiatives with associated measures had been carried forward into a new Aboriginal Justice Plan and that ongoing reporting was becoming cumbersome, confusing and redundant.

Prior to this, CSNSW’s self-assessment had reported that the majority of the RCIADIC recommendations directed specifically towards CSNSW had been implemented.

Notwithstanding the decision to cease reporting, public commentary following reports of deaths in custody and the associated coronial inquiries has included observations about the imperfect implementation of the recommendations and calls for Government’s to address them more properly and to be more transparent about the results.

In 2017, in response to such commentary, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to undertake an independent review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody across all jurisdictions.

The methodology adopted by Deloitte was to undertake a desktop review of the actions that governments had taken to address each of the recommendations and then consult with relevant Commonwealth agencies and each of the state and territory governments to capture any additional actions that have been undertaken that were not uncovered by the desktop review.

The reviews key findings key findings were that across all levels of government:

• 78% of recommendations have been fully or mostly implemented,
• 16% partially implemented, and
• 6% were not implemented.

The review found that:

...the highest proportion of fully implemented recommendations related to the justice system, prison safety and reconciliation, land needs and international obligations. The lowest proportion of fully implemented recommendations relates to self-determination, non-custodial approaches, and cycle of offending.³

The reliance on self-assessment by government agencies of the status of the implementation of RCIADIC recommendations has been criticised by many academics and advocates who remain unconvinced of claims made in relation to progress with implementation.

In a monograph published by the ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research 30 Years On: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Recommendations Remain Unimplemented⁴ the authors commented on the approach taken by Deloitte stating that:

It relies on information provided by government agencies – with little apparent analysis of the relevance of these government actions to the RCIADIC recommendations, the legitimacy of government claims to relevance, or whether the claims about meeting the recommendations are correct, or input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts.

To address the perception that self-assessment cannot provide an accurate picture of the status of any RCIADIC recommendations directed to Corrective Services NSW and the Justice Health NSW, an analysis of the evidence has been undertaken under the oversight of an Expert Reference Group comprising academics, legal and coronial experts and community members.