Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients

Over the last year, Legal Aid NSW has expanded our Family Law Service for Aboriginal Communities service (FamAC) to enable more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across regional NSW to access holistic, cross-practice and culturally safe services.

Since its implementation in 2022, there has been a significant and sustained demand for FamAC’s legal and social support. It offers clients a culturally safe, interdisciplinary approach to legal services and provides outreach, service delivery and casework in regional and remote areas with large Aboriginal communities. 

The team has worked with local communities and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to ensure that outreach service delivery is co-designed with locals and meets their needs. FamAC has partnered with the Civil Law Service for Aboriginal Communities (CLSAC) to provide wrap-around legal services in key regional and remote areas, noting the intersection of many civil and family law and care and protection issues. 

FamAC now delivers outreach and clinic services to Brewarrina and Bourke, Moree, Toomelah and Boggabilla, Dareton and Wentworth, Lake Cargelligo and Condobolin, Tweed Heads and Murwillumbah, Jubullum and Tabulum, Yamba and Maclean, Baryulgil and Pottsville.

Wrap-around support helps family stay together

FamAC assisted a young Aboriginal mother in care and protection proceedings relating to her older child, and family law proceedings relating to her youngest child. Our client was a victim-survivor of family violence and sexual abuse, was a child in care herself, and had a stillborn baby at the age of 15 years while living in a residential group home. She then gave birth to a child at 17 years who was subsequently removed from her care. Our client was not provided any support to address child protection concerns, which included family violence and housing. This child remains in out-of-home care, despite judicial commentary about the lack of supports available to the client as a child in care.

In January 2023, our client gave birth to her youngest child. FamAC filed an urgent family law initiating application seeking orders that our client share parental responsibility with a relative while the baby remained in her care.

FamAC has provided intensive non-legal support from a caseworker and referrals to culturally safe programs, including parenting programs, mental health support and housing. DCJ opened a case concerning the newborn. However, they did not join the family law proceedings and have now closed their file, indicating that there are no safety concerns for our client’s youngest child.

Aboriginal women comprise over 40% of the NSW adult female prison population and often present with complex legal and non-legal needs. They may have a negative housing classification, unpaid fines, family law and/or care and protection issues regarding their children, or be victims of domestic violence.

In 2013, our Aboriginal Women Leaving Custody (AWLC) program was established at Silverwater Correctional Centre to address the unmet housing needs of Aboriginal women exiting custody. The program was originally funded under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, and co-designed by CLASC, Corrective Services NSW, Housing NSW and the Community Restorative Centre.

In the year ahead, AWLC will expand to the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre and other locations. The team will include more solicitors, a caseworker, an Aboriginal field officer and a project officer. The AWLC Team works hard to reduce barriers to housing for Aboriginal women as they transition back into the community so that they do not exit custody into homelessness or unsafe living arrangements. The AWLC Team partners with FamAC family law solicitors to provide a more holistic service to clients.

In 2022–23, we expanded our Walama Unit, first established in May 2022. The unit supports clients to access and remain part of the Walama List Pilot at Sydney District Court.

The pilot provides an alternative sentencing procedure for eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants. It uses an intensive, holistic process to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration and reoffending rates. “Walama” is a Dharug word meaning “come back” or “return”, and in the context of the Walama List, it means coming back to identity, community, culture and a healthy, crime-free life.

The pilot has reached maximum capacity this financial year, and a ballot process for new applicants has been introduced. To meet service demand, we have added an additional solicitor and social worker to our Walama Team to ensure we can continue to provide high-quality legal services to our clients.

Since the commencement of the NSW Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme (SGRS), CLSAC has been helping Stolen Generations survivors submit applications and reviews to the SGRS.

The SGRS commenced on 1 July 2017 and officially ended on 30 June 2023. Under the scheme, survivors could apply for reparation if they were “removed by, committed to or otherwise came to be in the care of” the Aborigines Welfare Board (AWB) or the Aborigines Protection Board, under the powers of the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW).

This Act was repealed on 2 June 1969, but many survivors in NSW were then removed using powers in other legislation, such as the Child Welfare Act 1939 (NSW). Our staff have conducted extensive research alongside survivors to show that other government agencies acted in a racially discriminatory way, and sometimes on the advice of the AWB, extending eligibility for reparations.

We continue to work alongside the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to achieve the best possible outcomes for survivors.

When the Youth Koori Court expanded to Dubbo in March 2023, the Children’s Civil Law Service (CCLS) established a small Dubbo team to partner with the ALS to provide wrap-around services to Aboriginal young people appearing in the court.

A CCLS duty lawyer assists with legal issues such as debts and fines, policing, social security and out-of-home care that may be contributing to criminal law issues. A CCLS youth caseworker helps with non-legal needs that may present a barrier to resolving civil law needs. Strong referral relationships with key stakeholders in Dubbo provide additional support for young people going before the Youth Koori Court.

We now employ Aboriginal field officers in 14 Legal Aid NSW offices in both regional and metropolitan areas across our criminal, family and civil practices. The primary role of an Aboriginal field officer is to increase access to justice for the Aboriginal community, and their work often focuses on community engagement, supporting Aboriginal clients, and working alongside lawyers at outreach clinics and community legal education programs.

The Work and Development Order (WDO) Service conducted a series of online training sessions for Aboriginal Client and Community Support Officers (ACCSOs) throughout NSW in 2022–23 to support them in assisting people to resolve debt caused by fines.

The comprehensive training covered fines law, an overview of the WDO Scheme, and guidance for local court staff to help clients with fines debt to access advice and assistance. This help could include a WDO placement, which assists people to clear unpaid fines through participation in activities or treatment programs.

The WDO Team is following up the training with in-person visits to ACCSOs at local courts statewide to facilitate stronger collaboration.

In 2022–23, we have continued to build on our commitment to working with stakeholders across government, the legal assistance sector and communities to achieve the priority reforms, targets and outcomes within the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. We established a Closing the Gap Project Board and Working Group to develop, oversee and co-ordinate initiatives and activities that are aligned to Closing the Gap outcomes.

We delivered cultural safety training to our Executive, solicitors in charge, office managers and regional offices as part of our implementation of our Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework. This training will continue to be delivered as an ongoing part of our overall training program.