Concerns about “overstretched” Indigenous legal services and a lack of funding have been put to government officials amid calls for more support to make sure First Nations incarceration rates are driven down.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services have warned they're struggling to meet demand due to delays caused by understaffing and financial constraints.
Labor's Pat Dodson used a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday to pose these concerns to officials from the Attorney-General’s Department, which is responsible for overseeing funding of Indigenous legal services.
Senator Dodson asked officials whether additional funding was included as part of the new Closing the Gap targets announced in July.
Labor Senator Pat Dodson Source: AAP
“At the moment there is no intention to provide additional funding,” Iain Anderson, deputy secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, replied.
"The discussions around how that target is going to be achieved, that is still at a very early stage.”
Under the revised Closing the Gap targets, the federal government has pledged to work to reduce the rate of Indigenous incarceration by 30 per cent for young people and by at least 15 per cent for adults by 2031.
But peak body National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) says a lack of additional funding for services risks undermining efforts towards reaching the target.
NATSILS has said the latest federal budget risks further entrenching First Nations people in the justice system and warned the current five-year funding commitment to their services is not “nearly enough”.
In his questioning, Senator Dodson also seized on concerns legal services do not receive specific funding to represent families in coronial inquests for deaths in custody.
Deputy Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department Iain Anderson. Source: AAP
He said services are being forced to fund these cases through pro-bono contributions or by drawing on already "overstretched resources".
Mr Anderson replied: “this is an issue that NATSILS have certainly raised with the department and we’ve put it to the government.”
“But at the moment, the government has not decided to provide additional funding specifically for representation at coronial inquests.”
Under a new funding model announced in July, the National Legal Assistance Partnership, $441 million has been put aside for Indigenous legal services over the next five years.
Mr Anderson said the funding model would help support the government’s justice targets by allowing the department to have more influence on efforts conducted with state and territory governments.
“It is certainly the case that most of the levers there in terms of reducing Indigenous incarceration … are in the hands of the state and territory governments,” he said.
Mr Anderson said this would include a capacity for some governments to review mandatory sentencing laws considered to be a factor in the persistent over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the justice system.
Senator Dodson was skeptical about the approach: “So that’s the strategy is it? Is that the strategy to reduce these incarcerations by 15 per cent, to have further talks with the states?”
Greens Senator Senator Lidia Thorpe (right) with Labor Senator Pat Dodson (left) Source: AAP
Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe also asked department officials if they kept a tally of how many Aboriginal deaths in custody have occurred since a royal commission into the problem in 1991.
“Senator, we don’t have responsibility for tracking deaths in custody,” secretary Chris Moraitis said.
There have been at least 441 Aboriginal people who have died in custody in Australia since the royal commission in 1991. There has been at least five this year alone.
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