M2 - Learner Manual
25. Legal Needs of Indigenous People
The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW has published a paper which summarises findings from the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey showing that Indigenous Australians had high prevalence of multiple legal problems and government, health and rights problems. They were also less likely to have finalised their legal problems.
The Conclusion of the paper is as follows:
The LAW Survey demonstrated that Indigenous respondents had increased prevalence of multiple legal problems, and they had increased levels of government, health and rights problems. Indigenous people also had low levels of finalising their legal problems. Given their level of disadvantage, it is noteworthy that the LAW Survey did not find a greater number of associations involving Indigenous status. It is possible that methodological issues, such as the small numbers of Indigenous respondents interviewed and the underestimation of the level of Indigenous disadvantage, may have militated against observing a greater number of significant associations. Nevertheless, given their disadvantage and tendency to experience multiple legal problems, Indigenous people are likely to benefit from a more holistic or client-focused approach to their problems, including a coordinated response across legal and other human services. Furthermore, their lower levels of finalising legal problems suggest that they may sometimes have a reduced capacity to achieve legal resolution and may require considerable legal and non-legal support to do so.
Reducing multiple disadvantage for Indigenous people is a whole-of-government goal in Australia. For example, the National Integrated Strategy for Closing the Gap in Indigenous Disadvantage outlines targets for reducing disadvantage in the areas of life expectancy, early childhood, health, education and employment. A multitude of small-scale initiatives have been introduced at the national and state/territory level to address these targets (Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs 2011). Although such initiatives often extend to disadvantage in access to justice, they tend to focus on criminal rather than civil justice, given the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system (ABS 2011; SCRGSP 2007; Snowball & Weatherburn 2006). In fact, it has been observed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services across Australia tend to focus on criminal law matters, and there is a paucity of Indigenous legal services for family and civil law (Cunneen & Schwartz 2008; Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit 2005; Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee 2004). The present results more firmly entrench civil and family legal needs among the multiple legal needs that should be addressed for Indigenous people. The results suggest that the scope of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services need to be broad enough to comprehensively address criminal, family and civil law needs. They suggest that multidisciplinary initiatives that aim to reduce Indigenous disadvantage should also include the aim of increasing legal capability and effectively meeting legal needs in all areas of law, including civil and family law.
Sourced on 3/8/22: http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/UpdatingJustice/$file/UJ_25_Legal_needs_of_Indigenous_people_FINAL.pdf