AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Indigenous Law Bulletin

Indigenous Law Bulletin
You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Indigenous Law Bulletin >> 2003 >> [2003] IndigLawB 70

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Help

Charles, Chris J. --- "The Crisis in ATSILS Funding" [2003] IndigLawB 70; (2003) 5(28) Indigenous Law Bulletin 22


The Crisis in ATSILS Funding

by Chris J Charles

The separation of the functions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (‘ATSIC’) to the new body Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (‘ATSIS’). The current review into ATSIC. The decision to defund National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders Legal Services Secretariat. All of these momentous events are taking place at a time when the community need for strong, independent and effective Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (‘ATSILS’) is more pressing than ever, yet all are in or near crisis from under-funding and neglect by Government.

Many ATSILS have taken the opportunity to express their concerns to the Senate Legal & Constitutional References Committee Inquiry into Legal Aid and Access to Justice.[1] The Commonwealth Grants Commission Report on Indigenous Funding 2001 is quoted in the Coalition of Aboriginal Legal Services New South Wales submission to the Inquiry as follows:

The failure of mainstream programmes to effectively address the needs of indigenous people means that indigenous specific programmes are expected to do more than they were designed for.

This finding makes all the more ironic the claim made by ATSIC that it was a “supplementary funder” of ATSILS.

In his press release of 27 June 2002 then Minister, The Honourable Philip Ruddock, said in relation to the Grants Commission Report:

Indigenous specific funding is meant to recognise the particular requirements of indigenous people. It must be supplementary and not a substitute for the programs and services available to other Australians. The government is not seeking to diminish services to those indigenous Australians living in urban areas or to “mainstream” indigenous specific programmes. We are not going to close down these services.

A heartening statement. Unfortunately it is made in the context where little enough is being done to supplement ATSILS funding by anyone. Should not the Commonwealth Minister[2] take this matter up with her state and territory counterparts since ATSIC and ATSIS the “supplementary funders” for which she is responsible, acknowledge the inadequacy of their funding to ATSILS?

Yet mainstream Legal Aid Commissions are also complaining that they are inadequately funded to deal with the demand for legal aid by Indigenous people. In other words the under-funding of ATSILS as a supplementary service is occurring in a context of total under-funding of legal aid services.

Significantly the Law Council of Australia submitted to the Senate Committee that:

The Commonwealth should at least fund legal aid commissions to provide legal aid and assistance to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people whether in Commonwealth or State jurisdictions, where such assistance is not readily available from an Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Service. At the same time resources available to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services should also be improved.

Numerous reports indicate that the services provided by ATSILS are actually upon a less expensive base than mainstream services. ATSILS say that they can provide better services, more closely aligned with communities and their needs and better able to provide the culturally sensitive and useful services to their clients. It is this inherent capacity of ATSILS that distinguishes them from mainstream Legal Aid Commissions; this is the supplementary service Indigenous people require.

The inadequacy of current funding is manifest when annual funding submissions from ATSILS are met with an obscure funding formula which does not provide for increased demand for services, increased expectations from ATSIC, or adequate pay and conditions for staff.

Calls to address indicators of disadvantage such as imprisonment rates, tough law and order legislation and family violence, combined with the expectation from the community that ATSILS will take on that work, receive little attention.

ATSIC and ATSIS acknowledge the accuracy of these claims of under-funding. The ATSIC Office of Evaluation & Audit Report – Evaluation of the Legal and Preventative Services Program of 2003 found that the gap between existing funding and funding needed for ATSILS to keep their services to the level of mainstream services was in the vicinity of twenty-three million dollars.[3]

Ominously the ATSIC National State Directions Strategy, quoting these figures, says “[t]hose funds are not likely to be made available so it is critical that ATSIC exhaust every opportunity to improve the existing use of current resources”.

The National State Directions Strategy acknowledges that a study that it had commissioned;

determined that an alternative market of non indigenous service providers that could provide culturally sensitive and stable services was highly restricted and in many cases non existent.

ATSIC acknowledges the value of continuing ATSILS. The Strategy also refers to a revised funding allocation method. It is hoped that this Strategy will go some way toward addressing the ongoing crisis in ATSILS funding throughout Australia.

Chris Charles is a lawyer with Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) South Australia.


[1] Submissions may be viewed at http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/legcon_ctte/legalaidjustice/submissions/sublist.htm.

[2] The Honourable Amanda Vanstone was appointed Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs on 7 October 2003.

[3] http://www.atsic.gov.au/about_atsic/Office_Evaluation_Audit/Docs/LPSPrept.pdf


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2003/70.html