Western Australia has the highest Aboriginal imprisonment rate of any state while expanding prison capacity. Yet shortages of stable housing can obstruct bail, parole and successful reintegration.

The Productivity Commission’s latest Closing the Gap figures should have caused a political shock. Instead, their release attracted remarkably little media attention. Target 10 requires Australia to reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult imprisonment by at least 15 per cent by 2031. Yet, to date, the national rate has risen by almost 30 per cent since the 2019 baseline.

Western Australia exemplifies that failure. On the latest reported figures, it has the highest Aboriginal adult imprisonment rate of any state. The rate was 3,302 per 100,000 in 2019. If WA were moving steadily towards its commitment, it would now be near 3,013.2. Instead, it has reached a staggering 4,306.

Because imprisonment has risen rather than fallen, WA must now reduce the rate by almost 1,500 per 100,000 adults in only five years to meet its commitment. There is no published recovery plan showing how that will occur.

The rapid growth of remand is one of the clearest drivers of this worsening trajectory. Nationally, in 2025, 45.1 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in prison were unsentenced. The number held on remand was 91 per cent higher than in 2019, while the number detained for more than a year had more than doubled. These people have not been sentenced; many have not been found........

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