Page 1978 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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MR RATTENBURY: We have seen a very unfortunate situation with the closure of the AJC due to internal problems at the AJC. I have been working with the Attorney-General on this. It is actually funded through Justice and Community Safety and the attorney has lead responsibility on this issue. But I have been working with and speaking to him and his office on this matter regularly. Certainly, two things are happening. One is that JACS has sought to work closely with the AJC over recent months to work through the process of trying to resolve the internal problems the AJC has and that ultimately led to its unfortunate demise.
The second thing is that JACS is now working with a range of other service providers to ensure that at least in the interim alternative arrangements are made to fill certain statutory obligations that the AJC has around providing—the expression is “an interview friend”, essentially, for Indigenous people. This is one of the issues arising out of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Those sorts of statutorily required matters are being addressed through other agencies, through support from JACS. In the medium term JACS is also looking to work to re-establish some sort of alternate service. But it is early days for that. I do not wish to pre-empt any announcements that the attorney might make but work is being done to fill the gap left by the AJC.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Wall.
MR WALL: Minister, what additional resources are being provided to alternative legal representation services to pick up any shortfall in the short term, and when is an announcement likely as to a long-term solution to this problem?
MR CORBELL: Madam Speaker, I will take the question as Attorney-General. I am responsible for oversighting and administration of the grant by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate to the Aboriginal Justice Centre. Regrettably, as Minister Rattenbury has indicated, the Aboriginal Justice Centre has not been able to continue to deliver its services to the Aboriginal community under the funding agreement with the Justice and Community Directorate, and that funding agreement has, therefore, been terminated.
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate is now in close discussion with a range of alternative potential service providers to provide the same services that were previously funded for the AJC to deliver. We are proposing to use the same amount of money that was previously going to the AJC and redirect that funding to alternative service providers. Right now my directorate is in discussion with a range of organisations, such as the Aboriginal Legal Service of New South Wales and the ACT to see whether they are able to pick up and deliver those services.
I have met with the Aboriginal Legal Service of New South Wales and the ACT. They have indicated to me their willingness to undertake in the short to medium term the delivery of a range of the services previously provided by the Aboriginal Justice Centre. I welcome their willingness to step into that gap and to deliver it on a short to medium-term basis while the government works with the broader Indigenous
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