Death of Ms Dhu

Julieka Ivanna Dhu (commonly referred to as Ms Dhu) was a 22-year-old Aboriginal Australian woman who died in police custody in South Hedland, Western Australia, in 2014. On 2 August that year, police responded to a report that Dhu's partner had violated an apprehended violence order. Upon arriving at their address, the officers arrested both Dhu and her partner after realising there was also an outstanding arrest warrant for unpaid fines against Dhu. She was detained in police custody in South Hedland and was ordered to serve four days in custody in default of her debt.

While in custody, Dhu complained of pain and was twice taken to the Hedland Health Campus hospital. Medical staff judged that her complaints were exaggerated and associated with drug withdrawal. On 4 August, Dhu complained that she could no longer stand. Police officers, who accused her of faking her condition, handcuffed her, carried her to the back of their van and returned her to the hospital; she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The official cause of death was an infection due to her partner's breaking of her ribs three months earlier.

An internal police investigation found that 11 officers had failed to comply with regulations or were otherwise guilty of misconduct. They were given written and oral warnings. A coronial inquest found that she had suffered "unprofessional and inhumane" handling by police and "deficient" treatment from hospital staff. It also established that police and hospital staff had been influenced by preconceived ideas about Aboriginal people. The inquest recommended that the justice system should stop imprisoning people for unpaid fines and introduce a Custody Notification Scheme (CNS). After years of delays, a CNS was made operational in October 2019. Attorney-General of Western Australia John Quigley introduced legislative amendments to cease jailing people for unpaid fines in September 2019, which were implemented in June 2020.

Julieka Ivanna Dhu was born on 26 December 1991 in Port Hedland, Western Australia (WA). She was Aboriginal and of the Yamatji people. She lived with her parents until they separated when she was three, after which she was mostly raised by her grandmother in Geraldton, though her parents remained in regular contact with her. She was described as a "cheerful" child whose only health issue was mild asthma. Dhu completed Year Eleven; according to her family, after leaving school, she seemed to associate "with a bad crowd" and was a "wild child".

In November 2009, when she was 17, police found Dhu sleeping near Cable Beach; when they woke her she appeared to be intoxicated, swore at them and said "I don't remember anything after taking that eccy". Police arrested her for disorderly conduct and failing to give her name and address, and she was detained in police custody overnight. She was released on bail the next day but failed to appear at her hearing at the Children's Court and was fined A$200. The following year, Dhu was involved in two more minor incidents involving police after she moved back to Port Hedland. On one of the occasions, she kicked a female police officer while being arrested for disorderly conduct and was later also charged with obstructing and assaulting police. Dhu was again fined by the courts.

In 2013, at age 21, Dhu began a relationship with a 42-year-old man, Dion Ruffin, who had several children by previous partners and—unknown to Dhu—had criminal convictions for domestic violence. By late December that year, Dhu's mother said her daughter had become withdrawn and had lost weight. Dhu told her mother that she and Ruffin were using methamphetamines and their fortnightly Centrelink payments were always spent on the drug in a day or two. Around the Easter holidays in 2014, Dhu told her grandmother Ruffin had physically assaulted her. Her grandmother helped Dhu leave Ruffin and paid for the 1,100 km (683.5 mi) bus journey from Geraldton to Karratha, where they had relatives. Ruffin discovered where Dhu had sought refuge and after several weeks persuaded her to return to him. They lived together in a rented house in South Hedland. In July 2014, Dhu told her father Ruffin had broken her ribs. Ruffin subsequently admitted this, saying he struck her after she had stabbed him in the leg with a pair of scissors.

In 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was released. One of its 339 recommendations was an end to issuing arrest warrants for unpaid fines, and another was the implementation of Custody Notification Schemes (CNS) in all Australian states and territories. At the time of Dhu's death, New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) were the only state and territory to have implemented a CNS. The CNS consists of a 24-hour legal advice and support telephone hotline for any Aboriginal person taken into custody, connecting them with lawyers from the Aboriginal Legal Service. As of 2014^[update], no Aboriginal person had died in custody in NSW or the ACT since the scheme was implemented.

At the time of Dhu's death, Western Australia was the only Australian state still imprisoning people for unpaid fines; NSW was the first state to abandon the practice following a death in custody in 1987. Every year between 2010 and 2014, more than 1,000 people were sent to prison in Western Australia for unpaid fines, and one third of imprisoned women were there for that reason. As of 2014^[update], one sixth of imprisoned Aboriginal people were there for unpaid fines; the number increased from 33 to 223 between 2008 and 2013. In 2015, then Premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett acknowledged that the number of people incarcerated for unpaid fines is unknown but higher than official records show, as government statistics only count people being sent to prisons, and not those sent to police lockup cells for shorter periods. Between mid-2006 and mid-2016, 73% of female fine defaulters in Western Australia were unemployed, and 64% were Indigenous. Being jailed for unpaid fines in Western Australia resulted in a criminal record, whereas all other Australian states and territories considered fines a civil matter. Western Australia police did not have the discretion to ignore arrest warrants for unpaid fines under any circumstances.