A $1.1 million ex-gratia payment has been awarded to the family of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman, who the West Australian coroner ruled was treated inhumanely in the lead up to her death in police custody.
Ms Dhu, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons, died two days after being locked up at South Hedland Police Station in August 2014 for unpaid fines totalling $3622, stemming from charges including assaulting police.
Attorney-General John Quigley revealed during a budget estimates hearing in parliament on Wednesday that the ex-gratia payment had been given to five family members but would not stop them from seeking further damages.
If the family is successful with its legal action, the $1.1 million payment will be deducted from any damages awarded.
Lawyer for the family Stewart Levitt told AAP the ex-gratia payment was belated and it was regrettable it took a change of government and legal action to get the payment.
Mr Quigley also said the state government was planning to introduce a custody notification service, which would require police to call a hotline when an indigenous person was arrested.
Ms Dhu died during her third visit in as many days to the Hedland Health Campus from staphylococcal septicaemia and pneumonia after an infection in her fractured ribs, caused by her partner, spread to her lungs.
Some police officers testified during the coronial inquest that they thought Ms Dhu was faking illness and was coming down from drugs, while some medical staff also thought she was exaggerating and had behavioural issues.
Coroner Ros Fogliani found Ms Dhu's death could have been prevented if her illness had been diagnosed earlier and she had been given antibiotics.
Mr Quigley said a separate ex-gratia application for Aboriginal man Gene Gibson, who was wrongfully jailed for unlawfully killing 21-year-old Josh Warneke in Broome in 2010, was also progressing.
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