Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) chief executive Karly Warner has warned that for Closing the Gap to succeed the next New South Wales Government must increase funding to the Aboriginal Legal Service.
"We all want to see a legal system that actually delivers justice, and for Aboriginal people, that depends on having culturally safe legal representation," Ms Warner said.
The state's peak bodies for solicitors and barristers joined the Aboriginal Legal Service on Monday in a call for a fairer justice system in the lead-up to the state election.
Ms Warner said that while NSW has invested in the expansion of courts and positive initiatives like circle sentencing, there has been little to no reciprocal investment in ALS core services.
"Our ability to provide legal representation was already stretched and now it's at breaking point. The result is that Aboriginal people are still left without safe, equal access to justice," Ms Warner said.
While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services nationwide are primarily funded through the Commonwealth, Ms Warner noted that other state governments have supplemented this insufficient core funding, and NSW needs to provide more support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
NSW Bar Association president Gabrielle Bashir SC and Law Society of NSW president Cassandra Banks backed Ms Warner's call for state funding of the ALS.
Ms Banks said there has been progress on some Closing the Gap targets in NSW, but the overrepresentation of Aboriginal adults, particularly women, in the criminal justice system continues.
"This is of concern, not least of all from the perspective of deaths in custody," she said.
"We simply cannot close this gap without guaranteeing culturally effective legal support for those who find themselves in the system. The most culturally effective providers for Aboriginal people are Aboriginal community-controlled legal services."
The Bar, Law Society and ALS called for continued efforts to divert Aboriginal people away from imprisonment into more effective, community-based solutions.
Ms Bashir said the next NSW government "must commit to a Walama Court – not just the Walama List".
"A Walama Court would cement with committed funding the opportunity for eligible First Nations people to be sentenced in a way that involves wrap around services to target support and to reduce any prospect of reoffending," Ms Bashir said.
"Elders and other respected community members take part in the sentencing process alongside a judge, driving home to offenders not only the harm of their actions but the right path away from crime.
"The high rates of First Nations deaths in custody remains a national disgrace and affected families need support navigating the legal system. This all means properly resourcing effective reform measures and the Aboriginal Legal Service who are on the frontline for First Nations people each and every day."
The New South Wales Greens have committed to a $2.5 million per year funding increase for the ALS and to introducing a justice impact test that will require any new legislation to consider monetary impacts on legal assistance services and adjust funding to appropriately respond to the predicted impact.
First Nations activist and Greens Upper House candidate and Lynda-June Coe said the current NSW government has failed to address the needs of critical services such as the ALS, who are "operating at a capacity not fit to meet the surge of incarcerated First Nations people across the state".
"Under the current funding model the ALS and other Aboriginal organisations working to reduce the overrepresentation of our people in the criminal justice system is inadequate and ineffective - if the incoming government is serious about addressing First Nations justice, increased resourcing is essential," she said.
