One of Australia’s leading Indigenous affairs advocates says a racist society is to blame for a lack of air conditioning at Western Australia’s hottest jail.
Key points:
- Temperatures inside the prison soared above 50 degrees during heatwaves last year
- Advocates are furious at the news that an animal shelter in Port Hedland looks set to be air conditioned before the prison
- Fred Chaney says the Roebourne jail situation is “an example of continued discrimination”
Fred Chaney, a former Aboriginal affairs minister in the Fraser government and a life-long advocate for reconciliation, said the conditions at Roebourne Regional Prison in the Pilbara would not be tolerated at a mostly white facility.
The 81-year-old has added his voice to calls for the state government to act before somebody dies in a sweltering cell at the medium security prison.
About 90 per cent of the prisoners are Aboriginal.
Temperatures in the jail soared past 50 degrees last summer and most cells do not have air conditioning.
Mr Chaney said the situation at Roebourne was an indictment on Australia’s treatment of Indigenous people.
“It’s part of a pattern in Australia of turning our eyes away from the fact that we, in so many ways, behave as if Aboriginal people are less human than the rest of us,” Mr Chaney said.
“I think racism is manifested in a whole lot of ways.
“Most importantly it’s manifested in the fact that people think it’s OK to do things to Aboriginal people that you wouldn’t do to anyone else.”
He said the attitude towards prisoners in Roebourne echoed the views that prevailed in the lead -up to the death of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder who died after suffering heat stroke in the back of a prison transport van in 2008.
“Australians hate to hear that being said, but the truth is, if you look at the example of the man from the western desert who died in the back of a non-air-conditioned van with no consequences at all — if that had happened to a dog, there’d have been prosecutions for animal cruelty,” Mr Chaney said.
Roebourne prison is the only jail in the Pilbara. Nine out of 10 inmates are Indigenous.(ABC News: Kendall O’Connor)
Air con for animal pound
There has been renewed scrutiny of conditions at the prison ahead of what is expected to be another scorching summer.
Lawyers and activists have criticised the government’s lack of action and it has also emerged that a facility for stray animals at Port Hedland, 230 kilometres north-east of Roebourne, is likely to be fully air conditioned before the prison.
Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer Alice Barter said the discrepancy was appalling.
“I feel sick to my stomach that we as a community are valuing the lives of dogs and cats higher than Aboriginal people,” she told the ABC last week.
A spokesperson for Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston told ABC Perth last week that installing air conditioning at the prison was not a simple exercise.
“The buildings were built in accordance with the building code of the time,” he said.
Mr Johnston previously confirmed the government was considering the costs of installing air conditioning in every cell.
He declined to say what further action would be taken and said current heat mitigation measures in place at the prison were “effective”.
Mr Johnston says the heat mitigation measures that are in place, such as the provision of ice machines for prisoners, are adequate and effective.(Supplied: Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services)
Mr Chaney said the government needed to accept direct responsibility for the conditions at Roebourne.
“It’s not something that’s in the control of anybody else,” he said.
“All they need is to treat Aboriginal people with the same concern as they would treat other West Australians.
“I think that in so many ways, unconsciously or consciously, we continue to discriminate … and I think the Roebourne jail is an example of continued discrimination.”
Mr Chaney said despite his deep concerns he felt there were some glimmers of hope for Australian society.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, but I think the direction of progress is very positive,” he said.
“I see that in the reconciliation movement, I see that in the increased number of Aboriginal people graduating from school, I see it in the Aboriginal people in professional lives.
“But I still see enough to make me angry that we continue to behave badly with respect to the First Australians.”
