Two governments kept the UN’s Indigenous rights expert out of their youth jails. He leaves saying the states cannot be trusted with those rights

The UN’s independent expert on Indigenous rights has told Australia the problem is not a shortage of laws but who is in charge of them.

Dr Albert Barume, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, presented his preliminary findings in Sydney on Friday at the end of a visit that began on 2 November. His central recommendation: the federal government should legislate national, mandatory minimum standards for First Nations rights, consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Without them, he said, Australia’s human rights obligations are easily ignored by the states and territories, which run police, prisons, child protection and youth justice. He described the state of Indigenous rights as embarrassing for Australia.

Who kept him out, and why does it matter?

The Northern Territory government refused to facilitate a visit to the Holtze youth detention centre in Darwin, and the Queensland government did the same for the Cleveland centre in Townsville.

It is not the first time. When the previous rapporteur, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, came in 2017 she was able to inspect Cleveland. In 2022 the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture abandoned its Australian visit after it was denied access to places of detention in Queensland and New South Wales.

What did he find?

Dr Barume described the detention of Aboriginal children as creating a new Stolen Generation, and said Indigenous children were also filling the out-of-home care system. He said some prisons are 90 per cent Indigenous.

The numbers behind that: Indigenous people make up 37 per cent of the prison population, up from 24 per cent in 2009. A Senate report in September found 60 per cent of children in detention in the June 2025 quarter were Indigenous, though Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 6.6 per cent of the population.

He blamed punitive bail and sentencing laws and the failure to raise the age of criminal responsibility, and said incarceration cannot be separated from colonisation, dispossession and structural racism. He said he was shocked by recent reports of Indigenous women giving birth while shackled, and was concerned that First Nations women who survive violence are wrongly identified by police as perpetrators, and fear their children will be removed if they ask for help.

He also said he heard disturbing accounts of racism and hate speech during and after the 2023 Voice referendum, and called for a national representative voice for First Peoples.

Was any of it good news?

Yes. He pointed to the growth of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, Indigenous ranger programs, language revival and native title rights.

What does Canberra say?

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the government welcomed the visit, and that human rights in Australia are protected through a range of state and federal laws, the common law and the Constitution.

Dr Barume met the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, and has asked to meet the Prime Minister. He said Anthony Albanese should show leadership, including internationally while Australia seeks a UN Security Council seat.

Amnesty International Australia urged the government not to wait for the final report. Its Indigenous rights adviser, Palawa Elder Uncle Rodney Dillon, said the report “must not gather dust on a shelf”.

What does it mean for the rest of us?

Rapporteurs have no power to compel anything. Their weight is reputational: the 2017 report raised the same detention concerns, and nine years later the Indigenous share of the prison population is higher and the inspector is shut out. The difference this time is the target. By naming the states and territories as the weak link and asking Canberra to override them with national standards, Dr Barume is asking the federal government to take on a job it has largely left to the states.