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Allingham, Kate; Eggington, Dennis --- "WA Calls for a Statewide Aboriginal Interpreter Service" [2006] IndigLawB 52; (2006) 6(22) Indigenous Law Bulletin 6


WA Calls for a Statewide Aboriginal Interpreter Service

by Kate Allingham and Dennis Eggington

Currently there is no statewide Aboriginal interpreter service in Western Australia (‘WA’). The majority of Aboriginal people in WA cannot access qualified interpreters for legal and health matters, even though many do not speak Standard Australian English as a first language. It is often assumed that Aboriginal people appearing in courts in WA have an understanding of English, which enables them to comprehend court proceedings. In fact, various dialects of Aboriginal English are spoken in WA[1] and linguists have designated Aboriginal English as a language sufficiently different from Standard Australian English to require an interpreter.[2]

According to the WA Department of Indigenous Affairs, there are at least 80 language groups in the State, and in 35 per cent of Indigenous communities, the main language spoken is an Aboriginal language.[3] There is a pressing need for a statewide interpreter service for Aboriginal languages.

Since the 1970s, there have been a number of policies and laws in Australia that recognise the need for Aboriginal interpreters. In 1976, the Northern Territory (‘NT’) case of R v Anunga[4] provided judicial recognition of the need for interpreters in police interviews. The principles established in that case have been recognised by courts in WA as a measure of a fair interrogation: see for example R v Williams,[5] R v Webb,[6] R v Njana.[7] The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody of 1991 found that governments must recruit and train Indigenous people as interpreters where significant numbers appear before the courts.[8]

There are also provisions in international law that require interpreters in criminal proceedings. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights[9] states that all are equal before the law (Article 7) and all are entitled to a fair hearing in the determination of criminal charges (Article 10). The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[10] requires interpreters in criminal proceedings (Article 14(3)). These human rights, however, are not effectively protected in WA.

The lack of interpreters in Aboriginal languages has led to the courts and service providers proceeding without an interpreter or using bilingual but unaccredited Indigenous people, such as prisoners or relatives, to interpret. An example is the murder trial of an Aboriginal man in the Broome Supreme Court. As a qualified interpreter in the appropriate language could not be located, a prisoner in the Broome Regional Prison was asked to interpret despite the fact that the case involved complex medical evidence which the accused would have been unlikely to understand.[11]

The Office of Crime Prevention’s Preventing Violence: The State Community Violence Prevention Strategy 2005 recommended increased use of interpreters by police and other services to reduce violence involving Indigenous people.[12] In February 2006, the Law Reform Commission of WA discussion paper, Aboriginal Customary Laws,[13] proposed that WA Police and interpreter services develop a set of protocols for determining whether an Indigenous person requires an interpreter during an interview, that funding should be provided for training Aboriginal interpreters and that education about the role of interpreters should be conducted in Indigenous communities.[14]

The Commonwealth Government funds a nationwide service providing 24-hour translation facilities in various languages, but not Aboriginal languages.[15] The Aboriginal Interpreter Service in the NT received $1.1 million from the NT and Commonwealth Governments for 2005-6 to provide interpreters in 104 languages.[16] The Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (‘ALSWA’) sent a submission, in April 2006, to the Federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and to the Federal Attorney General requesting that a statewide interpreter service, including Aboriginal languages, be established in WA. The response from both Ministers was that court interpreter services fall within the responsibility of state and territory governments. Why, then, has the Commonwealth Government established a national translating and interpreting service for non-Aboriginal languages that can be accessed by all state judicial systems?

ALSWA also sent submissions to the WA Premier and Attorney General. The Attorney General responded that he asked his Department to ‘carry out a study to inform future directions in providing a comprehensive and sustainable interpreter service for Aboriginal people in Western Australia.’ As we have seen, a large number of reports have already been written on this subject.

Another report does not need to be written. We respectfully ask readers of this article to do what they can to support ALSWA in their call for a statewide Aboriginal languages interpreter service. We also encourage people in other states to fight for their own Aboriginal Interpreter Service. We believe the implementation of Aboriginal Interpreters Services across the country would be a step towards helping to achieve social justice for all Australians.

Kate Allingham is the Policy Officer at the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (‘ALSWA’). She is an Honours graduate in Politics and is currently studying law. Dennis Eggington is the Chief Executive Officer of ALSWA. A Noongar man, he is widely known throughout the country for his work within the justice system, and is frequently called upon to share his views on the complex issues facing Indigenous people.


[1] Kimberley Interpretive Service, Discussion Paper: Indigenous Language Interpreting Services, (2004) 24.

[2] Diana Eades, Aboriginal English and the Law: Communicating with Aboriginal English Speaking Clients: A Handbook for Legal Practitioners (2002) Queensland Law Society, 4.

[3] Hon Dennis Mahoney, AO QC, Special Inquirer, Inquiry into the Management of Offenders in Custody and in the Community, (2005) 281.

[4] R v Anunga [1905] ArgusLawRp 117; (1976) 11 ALR 412.

[5] R v Williams (1992) 8 WAR 265, 273.

[6] R v Webb (1994) 74 A CRIM R 436, 445.

[7] R v Njana (1998) 99 A CRIM R 273.

[8] Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991) Recommendation 100, AustLII Reconciliation and Social Justice Library <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/rciadic/rciadic_summary/rcsumk01.html> at 20 October 2006.

[9] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 71 UN Doc A/810.

[10] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1980] ATS 23.

[11] Information provided by trial counsel Peter Collins (October 2006).

[12] Preventing Violence: The State Community Violence Prevention Strategy 2005: A Green Paper Policy Framework for Development, Chapter 5.3 ‘Priorities for Area Development’ <http://www.crimeprevention.wa.gov.au/html/docs/ocp-scvps-2005.pdf> at 20 September 2006.

[13] Law Reform Commission of WA, Aboriginal Customary Laws, 2005-6, Project No 94, <http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/index.htm> at 20 October 2006.

[14] Ibid, proposals 44, 78-82.

[15] FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation, Submission to the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Radial Discrimination Regarding Australia’s Periodic Report for the Period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 1998 <http://www.faira.org.au/cerd/laws-policies-in-nt.html> at 20 October 2006, 2.

[16] Commonwealth Government, Budget 2005 Indigenous Affairs Fact Sheet: Indigenous Budget Measure 14: Northern Territory Indigenous Interpreter Service – extension of funding (2005) Attorney General’s Portfolio <http://www.atsia.gov.au/Budget/budget05/c_fact_sheet_14.pdf> at 4 October 2006.


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