99 Deaths Sparked a Royal Commission.617 Deaths Later — Where Is the Next One? In 1987, Australia reached a moral breaking point.

In 1987, Australia reached a moral breaking point. The deaths of 99 Aboriginal people in custody over less than a decade were so confronting, so clearly systemic, that the Commonwealth was forced to act. That action took the form of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, announced in 1987 and delivered in 1991.

The Royal Commission did not find that Aboriginal people were dying because they were inherently more criminal. It found the opposite: that over-policing, over-incarceration, neglect, and systemic failure were killing people who should never have been in custody in the first place.

Those 99 deaths were enough to trigger the most significant inquiry into Aboriginal justice ever conducted in this country.

So a simple, unavoidable question now confronts us:

Why, with more than six times that number of deaths since, is there no new Royal Commission?

The Numbers Tell a Damning Story

Before the Royal Commission

• 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody

• Period examined: 1980–1989 (approximately 9–10 years)

That equates to an annual death rate of roughly 10–11 deaths per year.

That rate was deemed unacceptable.It shocked the conscience of the nation.It justified a Royal Commission.

Since the Royal Commission (1991–Present)

• Approximately 617 Aboriginal deaths in custody

• Period: 1991 to 2024 (approximately 33 years)

That equates to an annual death rate of approximately 18–19 deaths per year.

Let that sink in.

The annual death rate has increased — not decreased — since the Royal Commission concluded.

A Royal Commission Was Meant to Prevent This

The Royal Commission delivered 339 recommendations.They were not radical.They were not unrealistic.They were practical, evidence-based, and overwhelmingly preventative.

The central message was clear:

Yet today:

• Aboriginal incarceration rates are higher than they were in 1991

• Remand has become a pipeline into death

• Watch-houses are still places where people die

• Youth detention replicates the same failures for the next generation

By any honest measure, the Royal Commission failed — not because it was wrong, but because it was ignored.

Why Has There Been No New Royal Commission?

There are uncomfortable answers to this question.

1. Political Convenience

Royal Commissions expose systems.They assign responsibility.They create permanent records of failure.

‘Governments prefer reviews, inquiries, and taskforces — processes that sound responsive but avoid structural accountability.

2. Fragmentation of Responsibility

Deaths are investigated one by one:

• Coronial inquests

• Internal police reviews

• Departmental audits

Each death is treated as an isolated tragedy rather than evidence of a continuing national failure.

The Royal Commission recognised the pattern.Governments since have deliberately avoided doing so.

3. Normalisation of Aboriginal Death

This is the hardest truth.

Deaths that once shocked the nation have been normalised.

If 99 deaths once demanded a Royal Commission, then 617 deaths should demand far more than silence.

Why Haven’t the Recommendations Been Implemented?

Because implementation requires governments to relinquish control.

The Royal Commission called for:

• Decarceration, not prison expansion

• Aboriginal-controlled services, not token consultation

• Independent oversight, not police investigating police

• Binding accountability, not optional compliance

Instead, governments:

• Cherry-picked administrative reforms

• Ignored structural change

• Underfunded Aboriginal organisations

• Continued laws that directly contradict the Commission’s findings

More than half of the 339 recommendations remain unimplemented or only partially implemented.

That is not an oversight.It is a choice.

The Question That Will Not Go Away

If 99 deaths justified a Royal Commission, then logic, morality, and history demand an answer to this:

How many Aboriginal people must die before another Royal Commission is called?

Is the threshold now 700?800?1,000? Or has the nation simply decided that these deaths no longer warrant the same response?

Conclusion: The Silence Is the Statement

The absence of a new Royal Commission is not neutrality.It is not caution.It is not restraint.

It is a statement.

A statement that:

• Aboriginal deaths in custody are tolerated

• Past recommendations can be ignored without consequence

• Accountability has an expiry date

The Royal Commission warned us.The numbers prove it was right.The dead keep counting.

And the question remains unanswered:

Where is our new Royal Commission?