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ALS backs call for additional $390m in funding for legal services
The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) is supporting key recommendations from the recently-released Justice Project Report from the Law Council of Australia, which examined ways to better ensure access to justice for disadvantaged persons.
Jerome Doraisamy
ALS has endorsed the key recommendations from the LCA’s report aimed at delivering access to justice for Aboriginal people in rural, regional and remote parts of Australia and the urgent need for an additional $390 million per annum for critical legal services.
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The report outlined that imprisonment rates for Aboriginal people is now 12.5 times higher than for non-Aboriginal people, with Aboriginal women being incarcerated at a rate of 20 times more than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
In addition, Aboriginal children are 9.8 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care, a figure which is set to triple by 2035 if not addressed.
It was also found that Aboriginal people – particularly those in regional and remote areas – are more likely to suffer “multiple, intersecting legal problems” yet current legal services cannot meet the increase in demand.
The report identified a shortage of community-based sentencing options for Aboriginal people, as well as a lack of specialist Koori courts, drug courts and family violence courts, together with long court waiting lists and too few Aboriginal language interpreters.
ALS chair Bunja Smith said the Service welcomed the report’s “wide range of recommendations with respect for the principle of self-determination”, which is the key to providing justice for Aboriginal people, he said.
“The ALS has long campaigned for many of the report’s recommendations, which focus on culturally-appropriate diversionary programs and community-based prevention and intervention measures, as a means of keeping Aboriginal people out of jail,” he said.
“Alarming Aboriginal incarceration rates, once again highlighted by this report, show why mandatory sentencing and jail sentences for fine defaulting must be abolished as a matter of urgency, and why there’s a need for a review of sentencing guidelines, to take into consideration the impact of a primary caregiver’s imprisonment on their families and an expansion of bail support and accommodation programs.”
The LCA’s “comprehensive findings” justify the establishment of National Justice Targets and an injection of $390 million per annum in additional funding for legal services, particularly in regional and remote areas, he argued, where Aboriginal people are suffering the most.
“Aboriginal community-controlled organisations can and should play an important role in providing ‘wrap-around’ support services which address the many social issues, such as housing, education, homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse, which can trigger re-offending and re-engage people with the criminal justice system,” he concluded.
