Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services around Australia have welcomed the federal government's announcement of a $21 million funding increase but say the "band-aid measure" will do little more than help keep the lights on, with an emergency increase to core funding necessary to stop ongoing service freezes in multiple communities nationwide.
Karly Warner, chair of NATSILS, the national peak body for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services around the country, and Aboriginal Legal Service in NSW/ACT CEO, said the funding was a "good start and will help us keep the lights on over the next 12 months, but it's simply not enough".
"We fully expect service freezes to continue and that means bad outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians including unjust incarceration and separated families," she said.
"This increase in funding will mean different things for different services around the country. It's a welcome breather but ultimately is nowhere near enough to reverse the increasing freezes that are crippling our capacity to achieve justice for our clients.
"We will continue to work with government and other stakeholders to minimise the impact on communities. We will be continuing our campaign for sustainable funding that guarantees access to high quality advice and services."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services in sites in Queensland and New South Wales have been frozen in recent weeks due to the funding crisis.
NATSILS described the small increase in federal funding announced Friday as "sourced from department underspend in other areas".
Aboriginal Legal Services around Australia have been calling on the federal government to deliver a $250 million emergency support package to prevent imminent service freezes and unjust incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The peak body noted that demand for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services has increased by up to 100 per cent since 2018 but core funding from the Commonwealth has declined in real terms.
"Service freezes will have dire consequences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who need our services to have any chance of equal access to justice. Service freezes risk disastrous outcomes including increased family violence and child removal, unjust incarceration and deaths in custody," NATSILS said in a statement.
"The current workload crisis facing our frontline services risks the physical and mental health of our staff and therefore our clients. The difficult decision to freeze services will be devastating for our organisations because it means real people who deserve culturally appropriate legal representation are turned away and suffer unnecessarily through the justice system."
Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the government recognises "the critical role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services play in ensuring First Nations people have access to culturally appropriate and safe legal assistance".
"In recognition of the demands placed on ATSILS due to the rising cost of providing critical front-line services, the Government will provide $21 million in one-off additional funding to ATSILS from within existing resources of the Attorney-General's Department," he said on Monday.
"This additional funding will be provided to the sector's peak body, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services for distribution to ATSILS in every state and territory to ensure ongoing access to justice for First Nations people."
Mr Dreyfus said the funding is "in addition to over $440 million over five years" under the National Legal Assistance Partnership that is dedicated to ATSILS.
"Today's announcement reinforces the Government's commitment to working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve better justice outcomes, in line with targets 10 and 11 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap," he said.
