Current e-Petitions for the Legislative Council

Racial Discrimination within the Western Australian Justice System

Eligibility : Residents of Western Australia Only

To the President and Members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We the undersigned ...

support an urgent review of the justice system to first identify the systemic and procedural factors contributing to the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Western Australia, and then make appropriate recommendations for urgent adoption by the Government.
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice Report (2018) found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are significantly more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous people charged with similar crimes. Solutions to address this implicit structural racism - such as a ban on all white juries (particularly in trials involving non-white parties) - need to be urgently considered and implemented.
We therefore ask the Legislative Council to support an urgent review of the causes and potential solutions for racial discrimination within Western Australia’s justice system, including a ban on all-white juries.

And your petitioners as in duty bound, will ever pray.