Aboriginal Legal Services across Australia are on the “brink of collapse” and will be forced to cut services within four weeks as they grapple with a nationwide lack of funding.
In a rare public statement, Aboriginal Legal Services in NSW, ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania joined on Monday to call for an extra $250 million, which they say is urgently needed to prevent service cuts being put into place.Such freezes would differ for each state, but would include the inability to represent new clients in certain courts in regional Australia.
Karly Warner, head of the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, said staff were “at the brink of collapse” and the situation was a “justice system emergency for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.Karly Warner, head of the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services
Lawyers fear the freeze in services will prove disastrous for clients, who could be at increased risk of having their children removed or being incarcerated without specialist legal support. Of the $250 million sought, $196 million would be needed to simply maintain the current level of service in each state and prevent service freezes. The additional $54 million would be used to fill in service gaps where lawyers are currently unable to reach clients.
”Service freezes risk disastrous outcomes including increased family violence and child removal, unjust incarceration and deaths in custody,” the group said.
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