Aboriginal Legal Services at three Riverina locations could be suspended due to funding crisis

Demand for the free legal service has almost doubled in the past five years but funding has not kept pace, according to NATSILS, the national peak body for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services around the country.

As a result, 13 ALS criminal law services at local courts across NSW will be put on hold within the next two weeks, including Junee, Temora and West Wyalong.

NATSILS chair and CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service in NSW/ACT Karly Warner said offices around the nation are stretched to the limit.

"This has been a long time coming, but now we have reached a precipice," she said.

"We simply can't continue delivering more services with fewer resources. Demand for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services has increased by up to 100 per cent since 2018, but core funding has declined in real terms."

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Ms Warner believes policy decisions by government have driven "a law and order agenda" that has in turn led to that increase in demand.

And a lack of funding is fuelling, among other things, a workforce shortage.

"[ALS] around Australia are facing an unprecedented crisis caused by the systemic undervaluing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services by government," she said.

"The workload crisis that is facing our incredibly dedicated team at our Wagga office means that we're actually at a crisis point and being forced to freeze criminal law services at three local court locations which are serviced by [that office]."

ATSILS Queensland has already been forced to implement temporary suspensions including at Magistrates Courts in Atherton, Innisfail, Mareeba and Tully in the past week.

Ms Warner is calling on the federal government to provide a $250 million emergency support package by May 15 to avoid any more suspensions.

Responding to questions from The Daily Advertiser, the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus would not be drawn on whether any emergency funding would be forthcoming.

A spokesperson for AG said the government "recognises the critical role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) play in ensuring First Nations people have access to culturally appropriate and safe services and programs".

"The current National Legal Assistance Partnership ends on 30 June 2025, and an independent review of the agreement is commencing this year. The review is an opportunity to examine the adequacy of funding and ensure the legal assistance sector is best equipped to deal with current and future challenges," they said.

The ALS suspensions are temporary as it stands, Ms Warner said, but without funding many Aboriginal people in communities across the country face using culturally unsafe legal services, or in many cases no legal help at all.

"We really hope that this is temporary, but this is really up to the federal government," she said.

"We know the risks of clients and community members self-representing in court is really high. And this usually results in far worse results than if they had a lawyer.

"They will likely be self-represented clients in court, and of course, a greater demand on duty lawyers, on on court resources and so many more other costs across the system."

Speaking at a budget press conference this week, Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said at this stage the budget is likely finalised and "it's a bit late" to ask for funding.

"The difficulty is, when did the [ALS] raise this issue? The difficulty with budgets is ... a lot of the budget work is done February, March, it's now May," he said.

"We need these local services, but this is up to Labor."

But Ms Warner bristled at that characterisation.

"This is something that we haven't asked for in the last week. Government has known about our slide into crisis, the increase in the workload, and of course, the amount of funding," Ms Warner said.

"They've known about us sliding into crisis for some time, and they appear to be willing to let our services either collapse or turn people away."

The last Labor budget provided $13.5 million in additional funding to ATSILS In the 2022-23 over three years for culturally appropriate legal assistance for coronial processes.

ALS is Australia's first free legal service, opening their first office in Redfern in early 1970.

They assist more than 21,000 Aboriginal people and their families in NSW and the ACT each year.

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