What is it like to live without justice?

How to get by in a society that gives your people no justice - this is not a kind of knowledge that anyone should have to have inside experience of. And yet this seems to be what Aboriginal people have to live with daily.

Two years ago, a 36-year-old Aboriginal man, Mulrunji Doomadgee, died in custody in the jail in Palm Island, apparently having been beaten to death by an officer, Chris Hurley. Hurley is not being brought to trial, nor even suspended from police duty. Palm Island is a former Aboriginal "reserve", which used to function basically as a prison camp, and apparently still does for some people. Stephen Corporal told us about an elderly auntie of his who went to Palm Island for a visit when she was young, and was held there for years without being allowed to leave and return to her family. The commissioner in charge wouldn't let her leave, even though she was not supposed to be a resident there. Although Aboriginal people are now allowed to travel freely (astounding that this has happened only so recently!), there are still a hugely disproportionate number of Aboriginal people in prison. An old law on the Queensland books outlawing public drunkenness and public use of foul language allows police to arrest people for minor offences such as "public drunkenness" or "using rude language". Somehow, this law is only enforced against Aboriginal people. Similar things happen elsewhere in Australia. Now, I've only lived in Australia for 3 years, but I can tell you that the amount of public drunkenness by white Australians is quite high. You can't go out on any night of the week without running into drunk white Aussies. But they're not arrested. And then there was the F-word study that Michael told me about, which showed that white police officers were more likely to use foul language in public than any other group in Brisbane. But it's white police officers arresting Aboriginal people for foul language. So Aboriginal people end up in jail, where they are brutalized.

Palm Island still seems to be run like a prison camp. My outrage today is caused by reading that the Queensland State Coroner just ruled that a police officer caused his fatal injuries when he was in custody two years ago. According to witnesses, that officer was Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley - this does not seem to be in doubt. Yet the Police Commissioner has not suspended this officer from all duties. Nor has there been any move to try him for murder. Mulrunji Doomadgee's son committed suicide about a month or so ago, seemingly as an act of protest, or in despair that justice would never be done.

John Howard likes to wax lyrical about "an Australia where everyone has a fair go." This is not a fair go. Not happy, John. This is not how "civilized" nations should behave.