A 24-hour welfare and legal service for Aboriginal people taken into police custody is expected to be operational in Western Australia by mid-next year.
The Custody Notification Service was a key recommendation from the inquest into the death of Ms Dhu, who died in hospital after being locked up at South Hedland Police Station in 2014 for unpaid fines.
The service, which will require legislative change, was expected to begin by the end of this year but has now been pushed back to the first half of 2019.
Under the plan, police will call a central number, which will divert to the phone of a rostered solicitor.
It will cost $952,000 a year, with the Commonwealth contributing $750,000 and the state government providing $202,000 for the Aboriginal Legal Service to employ five lawyers and two support staff.
WA Attorney-General John Quigley on Friday told reporters that the cost was higher than originally anticipated due to the size of the state and the number of interactions between police and indigenous people.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said since the service was implemented in NSW in 2000, no one had died in custody where the service had been contacted.
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