Brother fights for change ahead of inquest

The brother of an Indigenous man who died in custody in 2022 says he will not stop fighting for justice ahead of a coronial inquiry into the tragedy.

Shaun Austin was emotional as he made a statement outside the court in Melbourne.

“I will fight to make a change, any change possible, not only for Aboriginal people going through the justice system, but anyone who has to go through it,” he said.

His brother Clinton, 38, and a proud Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man, died at Loddon Prison in Victoria on September 11, 2022.

He was the second Indigenous person to die in custody in Victoria in that month.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service has raised concerns about the quality of healthcare in prisons in the Victoria.

“I believe that my brother deserved better from the justice system and it failed him,” Shaun Austin said.

In 1991 a Royal Commission into deaths in custody made 339 recommendations to better protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Yet, since then about 600 have died in police or prison custody.