The following has come from a recent editorial in eurekastreet.com.au . I recommend reading the complete editorial.
The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice, Fremantle, has called for a large ex-gratia payment to the family of Mr Ward. The 46-year-old Aboriginal elder and cultural leader died on 27 January 2008 while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, in the back of a privatised prison van. His first name cannot be revealed for cultural reasons.
The report of Coroner Alistair Hope was published on 12 June this year. It concluded that Ward died of heatstroke, and that the WA Department of Corrective Services, the prison transport company GSL (now G4S) and the two drivers were jointly to blame. The coroner said Ward’s treatment was inhumane, and a breach of international laws to which Australia is a signatory.
In a statement issued after the Coroner’s report, Edmund Rice Institute director David Freeman said the report confirmed fears that this is ‘one of the worst human rights tragedies in Australian living memory’.
The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.
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