Bob Debus (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Today I am pleased to announce that the government will provide an additional $6.3 million to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to help them meet the extra demand that they are facing. Indigenous Australians remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australia and experience high rates of contact with the legal system. This will allow providers to purchase properties in regional and remote areas to help them attract and retain staff. In Western Australia, for example, the average rental for a property in Karratha or Port Hedland is more than $1,000 a week and in some locations rental properties are only available to people employed in the mining industry. The funding I announce will provide:

• $2.75 million for the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia
• $515,000 to Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW and ACT)
• $800,000 to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (Queensland South)
• $895,000 for South Australia’s Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM)

all to purchase or upgrade property to provide accommodation and offices for staff.

The ALRM chief executive, Mr Neil Gillespie, today welcomed this additional funding. He said that in addition to purchasing properties in remote locations, the funding will also help attract ALRM staff to regional and remote centres. This funding is on top of an additional $300,000 that will go towards meeting the immediate demands of child protection as a result of the Mullighan report into child abuse on the APY lands. There is also an extra $140,000 for computer upgrades for all of these services. A further $900,000 has been set aside for the expensive Indigenous cases fund. This fund is administered by the Attorney-General’s Department and allows any legal service to apply for extra funds for expensive or high-profile cases.

This is the second round of one-off funding announced by the Rudd government. In April this year an extra $4.9 million was provided to help ease the financial pressures that many legal services have been facing. It included:

• $2.4 million for much needed capital expenditure on office accommodation requirements and the installation of air conditioning, particularly in rural and remote areas.
• $1 million for the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, which is facing increased workloads as a result of the work of the Indigenous Justice Taskforce in that state. That funding was in addition to $300,000 already provided to the Western Australian Aboriginal legal service.
• $1 million was provided to service various community courts including Murri, Koori and Nunga.
• The expensive Indigenous cases fund received an extra $500,000.

The government understands the pressure many service providers are facing. Aboriginal legal services provide an essential service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They play a unique role in the provision of culturally appropriate services to meet the legal advice and representation needs of their clients. As I have said, Indigenous Australians remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australia and they continue to have absolutely unacceptably high rates of contact with the law and justice system. As a consequence, those providing legal assistance are operating in an environment of very heavy demand upon their services. Solicitors and field officers in these legal aid agencies work long hours—often in remote locations—travel lengthy distances in the service of their clients, and the services they provide go beyond simple advocacy in court. Those lawyers are required to also be social workers, linking clients into Centrelink or housing or family and community services departments. They are required to be diagnosticians, directing them to appropriate health professionals, and career counsellors, steering them into appropriate rehabilitation and employment services. Tragically, by the time these clients finally access legal assistance, those additional support services are often required at an emergency level. Often the defendant’s life has unravelled so far that the burden remains for the solicitor to sort out the crisis when that person appears before court.

That is why this government is committed to closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage; to achieve targets in health, education, affordable housing and employment. Community safety and access to justice are also important elements in overcoming Indigenous disadvantage. Eleven years of neglect by the previous government has left this government with a lot of catching up to do. It cannot be done overnight, and there are always competing demands for funds, but both the Attorney-General and I will be working with our state and territory colleagues through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to promote the consideration of Indigenous and mainstream legal aid as well as community legal centres, and to promote the consideration of Indigenous law and justice issues by all governments.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Sturt to speak for six minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Pyne speaking for a period not exceeding 6 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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