Aboriginal people have an unenviable history in their interaction with the court system in the State of Western Australia. In Kalgoorlie this Commission was told that where you have people of limited understanding of the white man's law like that, you have a situation where they just commit other offences and have further penalties to face. It is an advance that witnesses are not also detained for the convenience of the Court process. Throughout consultations conducted during this Commission, Aboriginal people, their legal representatives and some interested community members have fundamentally stated that Aboriginal people get no justice anywhere. People suffer from a sense of powerlessness and a perceived inability to do anything about the situation.
People see the court system as 'corrupt, reflecting racist values and an agent of oppression'.
The Issues Unit reports that Aboriginal people are 'scapegoated' and given higher penalties in courts, and that Aboriginal people continue to be intimidated by the courts. Commissioner O'Dea's report also confirms this view. There is what appears to be an enormous ever widening gulf between the courts and Aboriginal people. These sentences were to be served cumulatively. It is this sort of sentencing practice experienced by Aboriginal people that colours their perceptions of the judicial system today.