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How can Government justify the defunding?
supplied by ALRM 23 December 2013
T
he Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc (ALRM) is very alarmed at the decision by the Government to cut funding to Aboriginal Legal Services, to our sister organisations the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Programs, the Community Legal Centres sector and the Legal Aid Commissions.
The Federal Government has also decided to remove all Law Reform and Policy Officer Positions within ATSILS. This shows that the Government is working towards silencing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices on law reform and policy. This will block equity and access to policy makers who directly effect and impact the lives of ordinary Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal Legal Services, as
service providers continually have to battle to meet demands on our services. We are underfunded and yet are expected to deliver the same level of services as State funded Legal Aid Commissions. It is evident that the ever increasing severity of legislation reduces the rights of Aboriginal Australians subjected to a Westminster legal system and it has devastating impacts on Aboriginal
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communities across the Nation. Cheryl Axleby (pictured previous page), CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc states, “The government need to put more effort into funding prevention and Aboriginal legal services programs”. Axleby further calls on the States to reduce flying the flag on the approach to “tough on crime”. Increasingly severe legislation should be abandoned and there can be other considerations such as “Justice ReInvestment” which will assist the Governments at State and Federal levels to save expenditure in the long run. State and Commonwealth Government continue to fund unsuccessful initiatives delivered via mainstream services, who receive specific Aboriginal targeted funding to deliver services to Aboriginal communities. Yet, many are not reaching their percentages and quota set for engagement with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders communities. Why are Aboriginal services being cut, when many are successfully delivering programs and services? In 1990 the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody highlighted these very issues and made 339 Recommendations to assist the Governments of the day to work towards reducing high Incarceration rates of Aboriginal
Australian statistics on imprisonment rates for the period 2000 – 2010. 58.6% = Percentage by which imprisonment rates increased for Aboriginal women 35.2% = Percentage by which imprisonment rates increased for non-Aboriginal women: 22.4% = Percentage by which imprisonment rates increased for non-Aboriginal men: 35.2% = Percentage by which imprisonment rates increased for Aboriginal men 48% = Percentage of juveniles in custody who are Aboriginal people within the Justice system. Yet still, we wait for many of the Recommendations to be implemented. “Perhaps this is why, some 25 years later, we are seeing an ever increasing and alarming incarceration rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders”, says Cheryl Axleby. Further the defunding of Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Programs will mean that many more Aboriginal Women will be reluctant to seek supports or to achieve protection through the justice system. It is also important to note that women will feel less empowered to seek justice or escape from the perpetrators of violence (i.e. Aboriginal and NonAboriginal partners). The Government have introduced „racially based legislation‟ via suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act‟ to introduce
Interventions on the APY Lands and in the Northern Territory, Income Management in Aboriginal communities and are now set to amend the Racial Discrimination Act to remove the protection from racial vilification under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act (Cth). Cheryl Axleby further states, “These are discriminatory measures and as Australians we need to ask ourselves is this the Australia we want to have recognised at the International level? ALRM calls on all Australians to lobby the government. It is time for Australians to stand up and tell the Government, we will not tolerate any more racially based legislation that is detrimental to the basic Human Rights of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Nations Peoples, of Australia”.
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