Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has committed to reinstate the Closing the Gap targets aimed at reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in jail.
Key points
- Federal Opposition promises to reinstate the Closing the Gap targets to reduce numbers of Indigenous prisoners
- Commitment to target early intervention, crime prevention and divisionary programs
- Critics argue the promise will be "throwing money" at the wrong program, school attendance seen as more important
The targets, which were first put in place by the former Labor government, were dumped under the Coalition.
Mr Shorten has delivered a speech promising, if elected, to work with state and territory governments to reinstate the targets and address the "heartbreaking" figures.
"If you are an Aboriginal man you are 15 times more likely to be imprisoned than a non-Aboriginal man," he said.
"The reimprisonment rate for Aboriginal young people is higher than the school retention rate.
"Today Aboriginal women are one-third of our female prisoners.
"It is soul shattering that our justice system is defunct for communities in our nation."
Mr Shorten has promised to provide resources for four sites to trial the "justice reinvestment" model that redirects funds into early intervention, crime prevention and diversionary programs.
The sites would be in urban, regional and remote areas.
"It is time for Australia to face these failures... to demand an end to this grievous national shame," he said.
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