The Guardian 28 May, 2008
Promise broken,
says Indigenous legal services
Darren Coyne
The federal government has broken its promise to strengthen funding for Aboriginal Legal Services, critics say. Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement CEO Neil Gillespie said ALRM would now lodge a formal complaint to the United Nations, while Trevor Christian, CEO of the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service, said his organisation would be forced to cut services.
Adelaide-based Mr Gillespie said the government was lying when it said it had honoured all of its pre-election promises.
"For Treasurer Wayne Swan to proclaim that all promises made by Labor prior to the last federal election have been honoured is wrong — to say the least," he said. "Promises appear to have been honoured — except for those that address issues for Aboriginal peoples.
"The Rudd government gave a firm commitment to ALRM on November 22, 2007 that ‘Labor will ensure the effectiveness and efficient operation of the courts and tribunals by strengthening funding to Aboriginal Legal Aid Agencies’.
"Furthermore, Sports Minister Kate Ellis confirmed to ALRM in 2007 Labor policy that Indigenous legal aid salaries would be on par with mainstream legal aid. Aboriginal people continue to be over-represented in the justice system and are incarcerated at alarming rates. Worse too, this government is following the racially discriminatory policies of the previous government.
"ALRM funding has been static since 1996 — except for a disgraceful offer of $1,000 on February 18, 2008. At the same time, though, mainstream legal aid funding has increased by over 120 per cent in the last 12 years."
Mr Christian said his organisation would have to proceed with cutting back services because there was no extra money in the Budget.
"No real increases"
"In the last ten years we’ve had no real increases, while the Legal Aid Commission has had substantial increases," he said..
"Aboriginal people are only two per cent of the population yet we make up 20 per cent of the jail population. There’s also a pay gap of between $15,000 and $25,000 between solicitors working for legal aid and solicitors working for Aboriginal Legal Services."
"That’s a giant gap and forces us to use junior solicitors doing senior work. Once they get the opportunity to move on they do because they can make more money."
Mr Christian said his service would be forced to suspend a hotline which provides Aboriginal people with advice if they are taken into custody, and also family law services.
Budget documents show that $58 million was spent last year on legal aid for Indigenous people. The figure budgeted for 2008-09 is a little under $52 million.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General Bob Debus said that legal service funding had been maintained, and that last year’s amount included one-off funding of almost $5 million.
"It’s all lies," Mr Gillespie said when told this by The Koori Mail.
Koori Mail