Healing colonial binaries: a ‘needs-based’ approach to Aboriginal persons found unfit to stand trial on the basis of FASD

ABSTRACT

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and inadequate legal responses to FASD associated impairments, are a critical factor in the complex web of issues responsible for the over-representation of Aboriginal persons in the criminal legal system. In Western Australia (WA), one such inadequate response is the potential for indefinite detention of Aboriginal persons with FASD found unfit to stand trial. This article proposes the optimal realisation of principles underlying the doctrine of fitness to stand trial through a ‘needs-based’ approach. FASD is a symptom and legacy of colonisation. Consequently, a response to Aboriginal persons with FASD must address two needs: the ‘needs' of persons affected by FASD, and the ‘need’ for decolonisation. This article uses emergent research on jurisdiction to analyse colonial criminal legal systems through a jurisdictional lens, and identifies opportunities for decoloniality through the creation of ‘engagement spaces’ between Aboriginal laws and non-Aboriginal laws. The emergence of such spaces is posited in the Kimberley region of WA. Ultimately, this article proposes a disposal for unfit Aboriginal persons with FASD that realises a ‘needs-based’ approach.

Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this article are the author's views alone. Thank you to Harry Blagg, Tamara Tulich, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Dylan Lino for their wisdom and insightful comments. Any errors remain the author's own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Zoe Bush is a practising solicitor, sessional tutor in the Law School at the University of Western Australia, and former Associate to the Hon Justice Barker at the Federal Court of Australia. The research on which this article is based was conducted when Zoe was a student in the Law School at the University of Western Australia.

Notes

1 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 206.

2 This article uses the term ‘Aboriginal’ to specifically refer to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, the First Peoples of Canada, or the Tangata Whenua of New Zealand. The term ‘Indigenous’ is used to collectively refer to Aboriginal peoples of different countries. 

3 As ‘justice’ is often far removed from Aboriginal persons’ interactions with WA's criminal legal system, this article uses the terminology of ‘criminal legal system’ and ‘criminal laws’ rather than ‘criminal justice’ or ‘youth justice’.

4 Education and Health Standing Committee, Parliament of Western Australia (2012), p 73.

5 Douglas (2010); Blagg, Tulich and Bush (2015); Blagg, Tulich and Bush (2016).

6 Douglas (2010), p 221.

7 Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Affairs (2012), p 33 [2.97].

8 Fitzpatrick et al (2015).

9 Chasnoff et al (2010); Douglas (2010), p 223; Rasmussen (2005).

10 O’Malley (2007), p 11.

11 Douglas (2010), p 225, citing Koren (2004), p 4; Weatherburn, Snowball and Hunter (2006), p 6.

12 Telethon Kids Institute, ‘1 in 3 young people in detention has alcohol related brain damage’, https://www.telethonkids.org.au/news--events/news-and-events-nav/2017/march/1-in-3-young-people-in-detention-has-alcohol-related-brain-damage/, 2 April 2017. At the date of publication, there are no statistics about the number of adult persons in detention with FASD.

13 The worsening over-incarceration of Aboriginal persons is documented in the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Affairs (2011), p 7 [2.2]; Nini Sui Nie Loh et al (2005), p 43.

14 CLMIAA ss 16(5)(b), 19(4)(b).

15 CLMIAA ss 16(5)(a), 19(4)(a).

16 The term ‘unfit’ is used to refer to persons found unfit to stand trial.

17 State of Western Australia v BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 (BB (a child)) at [55].

18 See, eg, State of Western Australia v Cipriano [2015] WADC 150 (Cipriano) at [39]–[40]; BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [55]; Tax [2010] WASC 208 (Tax) at [17]–[19]; Australian Law Reform Commission (2014), p 208–10 [7.82]–[7.91]; Western Australian Association for Mental Health et al (2014); Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (2014); Commissioner for Children and Young People (2013), p 3.

19 Douglas (2010), p 230.

20 BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [59].

21 BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [59].

22 The idea of a ‘needs-based’ approach to persons affected by FASD is derived from work in the context of sentencing. See, eg, Milward (2014).

23 R v Charlie (2012) 99 WCB (2d) 644 at [9]–[10]; Shankar (2015), p 39; Salmon (2011), p 171.

24 See, eg, Department of the Attorney General (2016), pp 56–57 [149]; Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [18]; Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (2014), pp 8–10[1.31]–[1.38]; Western Australian Association for Mental Health et al (2014), p 23.

25 See especially Blagg (2008), p 183.

26 Loh et al. (2005), p 43.

27 Law Reform Commission of WA (2006), pp 36–37.

28 Blagg (2006), p 318.

29 Blagg (2008), p 183.

30 Dorsett and McVeigh (2012), p 4.

31 Seuffert (2007), p 102.

32 Seuffert (2007), p 137.

33 Matthews (2015), p 146.

34 The idea of ‘place-based sovereignty’ is derived from Blagg and Anthony (2014), p 104.

35 The idea of the ‘space’ of country being both physical and metaphysical in an Aboriginal worldview is derived from Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 198.

36 The idea of ‘juriswriting’ is derived from Matthews (2015).

37 The idea of using jurisdictional interventions to inscribe a ‘temporality of becoming’ is derived from Matthews (2015).

38 Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [18]–[19]; Department of the Attorney General (2016), p 6.

39 State of Western Australia v S U (No 2) [2017] WADC 20 (S U) at [52]; State of Western Australia v Coomer [2015] WADC 156 (Coomer) at [43]; BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [96]; State of Western Australia v TJH [2011] WADC 183 (TJH) at [74]; Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [31]; State of Western Australia v Akor [2010] WADC 96 (Akor) at [55]–[62]; State of Western Australia v CSP (2006) 45 SR (WA) 177 (CSP) at [49], citing GFS v R [2001] WASCA 219; R v Garlett (2002) 29 SR (WA) 1 at [25].

40 CLMIAA s 33(5)(a); Declared Places (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act 2015 (WA) s 5(1)(a).

41 S U [2017] WADC 20 at [52]; Cipriano [2015] WADC 150 at [38]; Akor [2010] WADC 96 at [58], [60], [62]; R v Garlett (2002) 29 SR (WA) 1 at [25]; GFS v R [2001] WASCA 219 at [22] and [25] (Kennedy J, Steytler J agreeing), [60] (Wallwork J).

42 See, eg, S U [2017] WADC 20 at [56]-[57]; BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2.

43 BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [96].

44 BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [95].

45 BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [96].

46 Cipriano [2015] WADC 150 at [41]; BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [95]–[96]; CSP (2006) 45 SR (WA) 177 at [50]; R v Garlett (2002) 29 SR (WA) 1 at [25]–[26]; GFS v R [2001] WASCA 219 at [22] and [25] (Kennedy J, Steytler J agreeing), [60] (Wallwork J).

47 Akor [2010] WADC 96 at [56].

48 This assumption remains cognisant of emerging scholarship that challenges the appropriateness of ‘community protection’ and related concepts of ‘risk’. See, eg, McSherry (2013).

49 [2015] WACC 2.

50 Evinced by Whelan J's approach in R v B (L.L.) (2013) 109 WCB (2d) 438 at [39]; Milward (2014); Douglas (2010).

51 Perry (2009), p 251–252.

52 Atkinson (2013), p 13, citing Atkinson (2001).

53 Perry (2009), p 252.

54 Perry (2009), p 248.

55 Perry (2009), p 252–253.

56 Perry (2009).

57 Atkinson (2013), p 34; Perry (2014), p xi.

58 Perry (2014), p xi.

59 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 204.

60 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 204.

61 Atkinson, Nelson and Atkinson (2010), p 136, citing van der Kolk (2007).

62 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 204.

63 Originally published in Blagg, Tulich and Bush (2017), p 8.

64 See, for example, R v Charlie (2012) 99 WCB (2d) 644 at [9]–[10]; Shankar (2015), p 39; Salmon (2011), p 171. Australian courts have nonetheless routinely failed to acknowledge the relationship between colonial dispossession and FASD.

65 R v Quash (2009) 84 WCB (2d) 66 at [62].

66 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 204.

67 Glenn (2010), p 154.

68 Glenn (2010), p 157.

69 Glenn (2010); Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), pp 198–199.

70 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 198.

71 Glenn (2010), p 153.

72 Glenn (2010), p 159.

73 Matthews (2015), p 29.

74 Matthews (2015), p 29.

75 Matthews (2015), p 29.

76 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 206.

77 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 199.

78 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 196.

79 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 203.

80 Kwaymullina (2005), p 15.

81 Watson (2000), pp 3–4.

82 Watson (2000), p 12.

83 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 202.

84 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010).

85 Watson (2015), p 55.

86 Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 36-37.

87 Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 36-37.

88 Watson (2015), pp 42–43.

89 Watson (2015), p 43.

90 Dorsett and McVeigh (2012), p 4.

91 Matthews (2015), p 29.

92 Matthews (2015), p 31.

93 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 203.

94 Watson (2000), p 12.

95 R v Murrell and Bummaree (1836), p 1 Legge 72, cited in Dorsett and McVeigh (2013), pp 476–477. Seven years prior, the Court held that the common law had no jurisdiction with respect to Aboriginal accused in R v Ballard or Barrett (Unreported, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Forbes CJ and Dowling J, 13 June 1829).

96 Watson (2015), p 53.

97 Watson (2015), p 53.

98 See Coulthard (2014), p 142.

99 Blagg and Anthony (2014), p 105, citing Escobar (2011).

100 The idea of ‘engagement spaces’ being underpinned by relations of reciprocity is sourced in Coulthard (2014), p 170.

101 See, eg, S U [2017] WADC 20 at [46]; Cipriano [2015] WADC 150 at [39]; BB (a child) [2015] WACC 2 at [55]; Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [18]–[19]; Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs (2012), p 139 [5.101]; Crawford (2010); Tulich (2015); Martin (2015); Crawford (2014).

102 CLMIAA ss 10, 12.

103 CLMIAA s 11.

104 CLMIAA s 8 (definition of ‘mental impairment’).

105 CLMIAA s 8 (definition of ‘mental illness’). 

106 While beyond the scope of this article, the appropriateness of these criteria is contested. See, eg, Australian Law Reform Commission (2014) [7.41]–[7.45]; Victorian Law Reform Commission (2014) [3.50]–[3.53]; New South Wales Law Reform Commission (2013), p 31; Szmukler, Daw and Callard (2014), p 248.

107 CLMIAA ss 16(2)(b)(3), 19(1)(b)(2).

108 CLMIAA ss 16(2)(a), 19(1)(a).

109 CLMIAA ss 16(5), 19(4).

110 CLMIAA s 16(5).

111 CLMIAA s 19(4).

112 CLMIAA ss 16(5), 19(4).

113 CLMIAA ss 16(6), 19(5).

114 CLMIAA ss 16(6), 19(5).

115 See previous discussion on the prevailing interpretation of the ‘public interest’.

116 CLMIAA s 24(1).

117 CLMIAA ss 23 (definition of ‘mental illness’), 24(2); Mental Health Act 1996 (WA) ss 3 (definition of ‘mental illness’), 4.

118 Streissguth (2004).

119 FASD falls within the Disability Services Act 1993 (WA) s 3 (definition of ‘disability’); CLMIAA s 24(5A), as amended by Declared Places (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act 2015 (WA) s 66.

120 Declared Places (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act 2015 (WA) ss 11, 13.

121 Declared Places (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act 2015 (WA) s 5(1).

122 Declared Places (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act 2015 (WA) s 6(1)–(3), (5). 

123 CLMIAA ss 33, 34.

124 CLMIAA s 33(2).

125 CLMIAA s 33(3)(4)(a). These factors include the likelihood of compliance, the risk the accused presents to the community, and imposing the least restriction on the accused's freedom of choice and movement.

126 CLMIAA s 35.

127 [2010] WASC 208 at [18]–[19].

128 CLMIAA ss 23, 24.

129 Perry (2009), p 248.

130 AH v Western Australia [2014] WASCA 228 at [119] (Martin CJ, Mazza JA and Hall J).

131 Holman (2003), p 11.

132 Noted in Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [29].

133 [2014] WASCA 228 at [8] (Martin CJ, Mazza JA and Hall J).

134 Roach and Bailey (2009), p 41.

135 Perry (2009), p 248.

136 Western Australian Association for Mental Health et al (2014), p 31.

137 Tax [2010] WASC 208 at [19].

138 [2010] WASC 208.

139 [2015] WACC 2.

140 Under the criterion of an accused's ‘antecedents’ in the CLMIAA ss 16(6)(c), 19(5)(c).

141 Standing Committee on Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Affairs (2011), p 12 [2.21].

142 Commonwealth, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, National Report (1991) vol. 1 [1.7.1].

143 Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic) s 38ZH.

144 Perry (2009), p 248.

145 AH v Western Australia [2014] WASCA 228 at [3] (Martin CJ, Mazza JA and Hall J).

146 The Asante Centre, ‘What is FASD?’, http://www.asantecentre.org/What_is_FASD.html, 2014.

147 NZ Act s 7 (definition of ‘intellectual disability’).

148 Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003 (NZ) s 25(1)(b).

149 NZ Act s 6(3).

150 NZ Act ss 24, 25(1).

151 [2012] 1 NZLR 641.

152 The inability to sustain the connections and patterns of life from within fixed colonial binaries is articulated by Palyku persons Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 206.

153 [1999] 1 SCR 688.

154 Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688 at 723–4 [66] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

155 Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688 at 724–5 [67]–[68] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

156 Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688 at 725 [69] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

157 Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688 at 727–8 [73]–[74] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

158 See especially R v Charlie (2012) 99 WCB (2d) 644 at [9]–[10]. A similar sentiment was expressed in R v Quinn (2015) 123 WCB (2d) 483 at [48]; R v B. (L.L.) (2013) 109 WCB (2d) 438 at [31], [44]–[45]; R v Quash (2009) 84 WCB (2d) 66 at [62]; R v B. (D.) (2004) 118 CRR (2d) 141 at [74]–[75].

159 See, eg, R v B. (L.L.) (2013) 109 WCB (2d) 438 at [39]–[42]; R v Charlie (2012) 99 WCB (2d) 644 at [40]; R v Quash (2009) 84 WCB (2d) 66 at [62]–[75]; R v B. (D.) (2004) 118 CRR (2d) 141 at [74]–[75].

160 R v Linklater [2004] 2 CNLR 204.

161 R v Linklater [2004] 2 CNLR 204 at [62].

162 R v Linklater [2004] 2 CNLR 204 at [60]–[62].

163 See, eg, R v Obed (2006) 786 APR 286 at [29], [49], [68].

164 Canadian Act s 672.24(1).

165 [1999] Y.J. No. 57.

166 R v J.(T.) [1999] Y.J. No. 57.

167 [1999] 1 SCR 688 at [32] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing). The Interpretation Act, RSC 1985, c I-21, s 12 requires that every enactment be deemed remedial, and be given a fair, large and liberal construction as best ensures the attainment of its objects.

168 [1999] 1 SCR 688.

169 R v Charlie (2012) 99 WCB (2d) 644 at[32]; R v Linklater (2004) 2 CNLR 204 at [55].

170 Loh et al (2005), p 43.

171 Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2006), p 36–37.

172 Blagg (2008), p 183.

173 [1999] 1 SCR 688.

174 The idea of temporal fixation inhibiting the dynamic connection of patterns is derived from Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 200.

175 The idea of phenomena that disrupt the patterns of life being ‘unlawful’ in Aboriginal concepts of law is derived from Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 204.

176 On the use of criminal legal systems to inhibit expression and connection between relationships, see Kwaymullina (2011), p 14.

177 As detailed previously, the instantiation of jurisdiction with territorial sovereignty in Australia first occurred in R v Murrell and Bummaree (1836) 1 Legge 72.

178 Matthews (2015), p 175.

179 Matthews (2015), p 175.

180 Blagg (2012), p 491.

181 Blagg (2012), p 492.

182 YOA s 68.

183 Blagg (2012), p 491.

184 YOA s 67. The need for ‘punishment’ was elucidated in State of Western Australia v AT [2011] WACC 1 at [21]–[23].

185 [2015] WACC 2.

186 The principle of remedial statutory interpretation in the Interpretation Act, RSC 1985, c I-21, s 12 is not enshrined in either the Interpretation Act 1984 (WA) or the common law. Section 12 underpinned the interpretation of the Canadian Act s 718.2(e) in Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688, 706 at [32] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

187 [1999] 1 SCR 688.

188 Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688 at 723–4 [66] (Cory and Iacobucci JJ, Lamer CJC, L’Heraux-Dube, Gonthier, Bastrache, Binnie JJ agreeing).

189 Matthews (2015), p 174.

190 Kwaymullina and Kawymullina (2010), p 204.

191 Perry (2014), p xi.

192 The need for punishment was elucidated in State of Western Australia v AT [2011] WACC 1 at [21]–[23].

193 State of Western Australia v AT [2011] WACC 1 at [21]–[23].

194 AH v Western Australia [2014] WASCA 228 at [95]–[97] (Martin CJ, Mazza and Hall JJ); R v Charlie (2012), p 99 WCB (2d) 644 at [18]; R v Quash (2009), p 84 WCB (2d) 66 at [71]; Milward (2014), p 1027; Freckleton (2013), p 482; Institute of Health Economics (2013), p 4; Douglas (2010).

195 See, eg, Department of the Attorney General (2016), pp 56–57 [149]; Australian Law Reform Commission (2014); Victorian Law Reform Commission (2014); New South Wales Law Reform Commission (2013); Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (2014); Australian Human Rights Commission (2013); Commissioner for Children and Young People (2013); Holman (2003); Perptich, ‘Indefinite jail terms for FASD sufferers inappropriate, WA Chief Justice Wayne Martin says’, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-18/wa-chief-justice-opposes-indefinite-jail-for-fasd-sufferers/5754234, 18 September 2014.

196 Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina (2010), p 206.

197 Standing Committee on Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Affairs (2011), p 36–37 [2.115].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Institute for Criminology [grant number CRG 35/14-15], as well as the Ciara Glennon Memorial Law Scholarship.