The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples has urged the federal government to impose national minimum standards for human rights on the states and territories, arguing that Canberra alone answers for how First Nations people are treated under international law.
Dr Albert K. Barume said the gains Indigenous communities have made could vanish with a change of government, and that leaving them to individual jurisdictions was a risk the country could not afford.
“First Nations rights are unsafe in the hands of states and territories,” he said.
“They depend on political will, discretionary programs, political agendas, changing governments. It’s so unstable... Human rights should not be optional. They cannot.
“The Commonwealth is the only duty bearer,” he said.
“There has to be a national minimum standard across the states. You can’t let the states legislate on rights.”
Dr Barume’s remarks, delivered in Sydney on Friday, constitute the provisional findings of a two-week visit to the country, the third by a UN rapporteur on Indigenous rights, with a formal report to follow in September 2027. His itinerary took in Canberra, Adelaide, Broome, Darwin, the Torres Strait Islands and Townsville.
The rapporteur spoke of the emotional testimony he heard from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around the country, especially regarding child removals and child incarceration.
"They said to me, 'There must be a link between the care system and the prison system. One feeds another, and the other way round ... There is a new Stolen Generation happening'," Dr Barume recounted of his visits.
"Indigenous people have almost lost hope [with the system]. Their kids are taken ... Indigenous people are only 3 per cent of Australian population. how can they be 90 per cent [of the prison population]?'
Dr Barume said accounts of how women are treated in custody during labour had stunned him, and that they went to the heart of Australia’s standing overseas.
“I heard stories of women giving birth shackled. I couldn’t believe it. I had to double-check. A human being, pregnant, shackled to the bed,” he said.
“This current generation has something to face: their international reputation. The need to face their responsibility. The state of Indigenous peoples’ rights is embarrassing.”
A bill from Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe seeking to ban the practice was rejected by the major parties in the Senate last month.
Barume said the referendum had convinced him Australia was a place where his limited time could make a difference.
“I decided to come to Australia because I saw a sign of progress,” he said.
“I can only do very few visits, the UN doesn’t have many resources... For me, the referendum was a sign of political will somewhere, maybe not so strong, but... in the right direction.”
He called on the prime minister directly to see the issue through.
“You can’t abandon [it] because the first try didn’t work. Indigenous peoples’ generational hope is hanging on such recognition.”
Barume said the cost of that vote was still being felt by the people he met as he travelled the country.
“Indigenous people who could not hold back their tears that they missed something so important,” he said, relaying what he was told.
“It took ten years to prepare, cost hundreds of millions... They are asking themselves, when is the next chance?
The same vote, he said, left Indigenous people more exposed to hostility in daily life.
“It opened a flooding gate of racism, bigotry and hate speech against Indigenous people. They go to the supermarket, they’re called names.
"Because for some people, they were voting yes or no on Indigenous people’s rights. For some, it was a no."
He warned that how Australia treats its First Peoples was damaging its reputation overseas.
“This current generation has something to face: their international reputation. The need to face their responsibility. The state of Indigenous peoples’ rights is embarrassing.”
