1. Introduction
The Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission ‘the Commission’ aims to ensure that the protection or assertion of the legal rights and interests of people in the Northern Territory are not prejudiced by reason of their inability to:
- Obtain access to independent legal advice;
- Afford the financial cost of appropriate legal representation;
- Obtain access to the Federal or Territory legal systems; or
- Obtain adequate information about access to the law and legal system
Our service provides legal advice and assistance to people in a range of matters, including:
- Family law;
- Domestic violence;
- Child in need of care;
- Criminal law; and
- Civil law.
We also have a significant Community Legal Education function which aims to deliver information about key legal issues to key sections of the community.
We welcome moves to address Indigenous disadvantage and achieve social justice for Indigenous people in the NT. This will require dramatic and significant changes to funding and to the way that government and non-government agencies operate. However, we are concerned that the ‘roll out’ of the intervention has been conducted with undue haste and in a discriminatory manner which excludes Aboriginal people from the process. In some cases this has left Aboriginal people feeling humiliated and disheartened, with little perceivable gain.
The intervention has also highlighted unmet legal needs across the NT, in particular the regional and remote areas and the need for a greater investment in legal services to meet this need.